The Glory of Love
by BerryBlonde
Summary: Follow Catherine Amell as she journeys through Ferelden, fighting darkspawn and falling for a certain red-headed bard. Fem!Amell/Leliana
1. Lothering and Meeting the Sister

**A.N.: So, while this isn't the first story I've written, it's the first that I've ever submitted to this site, so I hope you all enjoy it! This will be made up of some choice scenes from throughout the game that I'll give my take on. They'll all vary from how things happened in-game in varying degrees of variety (hehe), and the scenes will jump around a bit, probably skipping huge chunks of the game in places, though I will at least keep things in "chronological" order. The focus will mostly be on the relationship between my Warden and Leliana, though I can't help but write in some action scenes. This first chapter is pretty action/dialogue heavy, and almost entirely lacking in romance, but I promise that the romance will come in time!**

**And of course, I don't own Dragon Age, I'm just borrowing it to play around in. Catherine is mostly mine, but the rest of them, and especially the snippets of dialogue that are taken directly out of the game, belong to the awesome video-game-creating-entity that is Bioware. Oh, and the title, along with some of the later scenes I have planned, is inspired by the song "Alive With the Glory of Love" by Say Anything. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy!**

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Looking down at the half dozen dead men lying on the ground before her, newly minted Grey Warden Catherine Amell could think only one thing: _I just set out on this little "quest" to somehow stop the massive army of darkspawn trying to destroy Ferelden and I'm already sick of stuff trying to kill me. This is not going to be a fun trip._

Rolling her eyes at the lifeless bodies of the bandits that had just foolishly tried to rob her, Catherine turned towards her companions and gave a small shrug before stepping over the bandit leader's corpse and moving down the ramp that led off the raised stone highway they'd been traveling on. Her companions, the only other surviving Grey Warden, Alistair, the so-called "Witch of the Wilds", Morrigan, and the mabari war dog that Catherine had named Izzy, fell into step behind the young mage.

As they stepped off the ramp and began to move towards the small town that stood before them, just off to the side of the road, Alistair stopped Catherine. He began to question her about what her plan was and offered her directions on where they might go to find the different groups with whom they had treaties. He also suggested that they visit Redcliffe first, but left the decision of where they'd go up to her, which rather frustrated Catherine. She was confused and a little angry over the fact that Alistair and Morrigan had apparently elected her to be the leader of their little group.

_Wish they would have bothered to let _me_ know about that little decision_, Catherine thought with a small sigh, which the sharp-eyed Morrigan apparently noticed. Then, as if she had read Catherine's mind (_She can't actually do that, can she? I don't _think _that's possible, but I wouldn't be entirely surprised either…_), Morrigan turned towards Alistair and addressed him.

"I have a wonder, Alistair, if you will indulge me," Morrigan asked, an eyebrow raised towards the templar-turned-Grey-Warden.

"Do I have a choice?" responded Alistair with a tone that suggested he already knew perfectly well that he in fact did _not_ have a choice. Catherine couldn't help but smirk as she stopped and turned to listen to the exchange.

"Of the two of you that remain, are you not the senior Grey Warden here? I find it curious that you allow another to lead, while you follow," Morrigan stated, falling just short of outright derisive. Alistair seemed to hold in a sigh before responding almost resignedly.

"You find that curious, do you?"

"In fact, you defer to a new recruit. Is this a policy of the Grey Wardens? Or simply a personal one?" continued Morrigan, grinning as she delivered the barb Catherine knew she'd been intending to hit the man with the whole time. These two seemed to have immediately and automatically begun to hate each other. Catherine just hoped they'd get over it, though the banter was a little entertaining to the mage right now, she really doubted she'd enjoy hearing them bickering throughout the entirety of their journeys.

_I'm sure they'll get sick of it too, before too long. Right?_

"What do you want to hear?" Alistair definitely sounded resigned now, as if he'd been expecting this question, "That I prefer to follow? I do."

"You sound so very defensive," Morrigan laughed.

"Couldn't you crawl into a bush somewhere and die? That would be great thanks."

Catherine couldn't help but chuckle at Alistair's retort, which drew her companions' attention from where they'd been glaring at each other, leaving them both looking at her awkwardly. Alistair scratched the back of his head and shrugged. Morrigan simply made an impatient motion with her hand for them to continue onward. Catherine rolled her eyes once more and turned to walk towards the town of Lothering.

After passing through a camp full of rather desperate looking refugees, the group found themselves facing a heavily armored man standing in the middle of the wide lane that led into the village. It was armor that Catherine knew only too well from her many years spent as a near-prisoner in the Circle Tower. Her grip on her heartwood staff tightened as she found herself facing down someone who was trained to kill mages like her. Catherine watched closely as the templar's hand slowly moved to rest on the hilt of his mace, and it was then that she remembered that she was traveling in the company of an apostate mage.

_Oh damn. Of course there are templars here to guard the town's chantry, why didn't I think about that? And the others chose _me_ to be their leader? Great start Catherine, inspiring leadership skills._

Catherine gave herself a mental shake to throw the self-depreciating thoughts to the back of her head as she saw the templar tense, his gaze now on Morrigan. The armored man closed his hand around the handle of his weapon and Catherine knew he was about to—

"Mommy, when can we go home?"

Catherine turned to see a mother and daughter walking up the lane behind them.

"We can't go home baby," the mother said softly and sadly, "We have to get away from the monsters, remember?"

The young child's face fell and her gaze dropped to the ground as the pair walked past the Grey Wardens and their companions. They then moved past the templar who stood staring at them, looking dazed as the mother and her young daughter walked through what was nearly a battle area and into the town, completely oblivious to the stand-off they'd interrupted. The Chantry knight then took a look at his surroundings, at the refugee tents that stood all around him and the weary people that walked to and fro. Catherine followed his line of sight and after a few moments both the templar and mage relaxed almost simultaneously, realizing this was not the place or time to be fighting.

The templar seemed to sag slightly, his shoulders drooping and his hand falling away from his mace. Catherine eased her grip on her staff and moved it into a less threatening position. The mage heard a relieved sigh behind her and glanced back to see Alistair and Izzy standing down, and after a short look from Catherine and a few heartbeats of hesitation, Morrigan followed suit.

"If you're looking for food or shelter, you'll find very little of both here," the templar's voice sounded surprisingly youthful to Catherine, despite the young knight's obvious attempt at sounding imposing, "Both the chantry and the tavern are full up with refugees, and we barely have enough food to feed the mouths we already have."

"Are you barring us from entering?" Catherine asked, the tension in the air around them suddenly increasing once more, though it quickly diffused as the templar shook his head slowly.

"No, between the approaching darkspawn horde and the bandits preying on everyone that comes in and out of the town, we have enough problems here as it is. I won't add to them by picking a fight with a group so well armed as yourselves," the templar said warily, his mace-hand staying away from his weapon, "I was just informing you of the situation here, in the hopes that you won't go bringing extra hardship upon the people here." His eyes moved pointedly between Morrigan and Catherine.

"We have no intention of bringing any hardships on anyone, we're just passing through," Catherine assured, then she realized something and couldn't help but add in an almost contemptuous tone, "In fact, we've already taken care of one of your troubles for you. At least one group of those bandits you mentioned is now quite dead. You're welcome." She slung her staff over her shoulder and crossed her arms, her disdain for templars overriding her fear of them now that she didn't have to fight one. She heard Alistair cough slightly behind her.

The templar looked towards the highway, then back to Catherine.

"Oh. Well. Thank you, I suppose," the knight said haltingly, obviously surprised, "Every time we went out after them they just fled, and there's too few of us here to keep order and protect the people here as is without half of us running around the woods looking for bandits."

"Yes, like I said, you're welcome," Catherine started with the same disdainful tone before she felt Alistair step up beside her with another, louder cough. Catherine took the hint and forced her voice closer to somewhat neutral. As much as she disliked templars, now probably wasn't the best time to go antagonizing one, "Um, there wouldn't happen to be a reward, would there?"

"Ser Bryant might have some sort of reward for you. You can find him in the chantry," the templar pointed his thumb over his shoulder towards the largest building in the village.

"Oh, alright." _More templars? No thanks._

Gesturing for the others to follow her, Catherine moved forward, purposefully not looking at the templar as she walked past him. They moved through the village, Catherine purposefully guiding them away from the chantry. Along the way she threatened a rather annoying merchant into reducing his ridiculously bloated prices and found a young boy who had apparently lost his parents to darkspawn. Catherine promptly directed the boy to the chantry, for she certainly had no idea what to do with the child, though her conscience refused to let her just ignore the boy's desperate cries. After talking with a few other villagers who wanted the help of the obviously able-bodied group, the four found themselves outside the Dane's Refuge, the town's tavern.

"I could really use a drink, what about you two?" Catherine turned and smirked, looking between Alistair and Morrigan. Alistair gave her a small smile and just shook his head, while Morrigan sighed and mumbled something about a waste of money. "Well fine, be that way, I'm sure Izzy will share a drink or two with me, won't you boy?" The mabari gave a happy bark and then followed his mistress into the tavern, Alistair and Morrigan right behind them.

Catherine had only a few moments to survey the inside of the packed tavern before her view was suddenly filled by a handful of armored soldiers. Armored soldiers who were giving her looks that made her _very_ nervous.

_Armored soldiers that probably work for Loghain. Uh oh. So much for that drink._

The mage slowly reached up to pull her staff off her back as the apparent leader of the troops stepped directly in front of her. The tall man stared down at her, obviously attempting to use his height to intimidate the shorter-than-average Catherine. The obviousness of this attempt only served to make her angry.

"Well well men, I think we've just been blessed. Didn't we spend all morning asking about a girl by this very description? And everyone said they hadn't seen her," the soldiers' leader said, sneering down at Catherine, "Looks like we've been lied to."

_Girl?_

"Oh right, because it's not like we couldn't have _just_ come into town or something! _Obviously_ it's some big conspiracy to pull the wool over the eyes of you and your crack team of investigators!" Catherine said scathingly, her voice overflowing with sarcasm.

The soldiers' eyes widened and they all placed their hands on their weapons, their eyes shifting between their commander and Catherine. The commander's sneer turned into an expression of outright fury at the words and he took another step towards the mage.

"How dare you! You need to learn your place, _girl!_"

_Oh that's it! I'll show these bastards what this 'girl' can do!_

Catherine was just reaching out with her will to gather the necessary entropic energy to burn away the commander's mind when a red blur filled her vision. She suddenly found a red-haired woman wearing Chantry robes standing between her and the soldiers, with her back to Catherine.

"Gentleman, surely, there's no need for trouble," the red-head attempted to placate the men, "These are no doubt simply more poor souls seeking refuge."

"They're more than that! Now stay out of our way Sister! You protect these traitors, you'll get the same as them!" the commander yelled as he pushed the sister to the side, drawing his sword from its sheath as he advanced on Catherine. He stopped suddenly though, as did everyone else, as the red-haired woman spun away from the shove. The glint of a dagger seemed to appear out of nowhere as she twisted and plunged the sharp metal into the side of the soldier standing just to the right of the commander. The wounded man dropped to the ground with a painful grunt as he clutched at his bleeding side. Everyone gawked for another moment, but then the mysterious Chantry sister spun again towards another soldier and everybody realized they'd just entered into a fight and began to act accordingly.

Morrigan gathered her magic and unleashed it upon one of the soldiers, blasting him with a bolt of electricity which surged and sparked across his armor, blasting him over a table. The rest of the tavern-goers ducked for cover as drinks and magic flew through the air. Meanwhile, the commander advanced the rest of the way to Catherine and slashed his sword towards her. The mage, who had been slow to react as she watched the unknown woman go from harmless Chantry sister to deadly blur of red hair and steel, nearly took the blow to her neck. Fortunately, Alistair had been ready and had immediately stepped up to block the blow with his shield. He then followed up the block by slamming his shield into the commander's chest, knocking the soldier back a few steps. Catherine used this breathing space to fire a spell off at the commander, filling his mind with entropic energy. The big man dropped his sword and shield and fell to his knees, pressing his hands against his temples. Next to him, another of the soldiers had found himself suddenly pinned to the ground by a very angry, and very _bitey_, mabari war hound.

Alistair moved past Catherine as a soldier charged towards Morrigan, once again interposing himself between a sword and a mage. The sound of metal meeting metal filled the air as both Alistair and the dagger-wielding sister engaged the last two standing soldiers. Morrigan hit Alistair's opponent with a blast of frost, freezing part of his armor and immobilizing him enough that Alistair was able to swing the pommel of his sword in to smack it over the top of the soldier's helmet. The man fell to the ground heavily.

At the same moment as Morrigan fired off hers, Catherine used a spell of her own to daze the other enemy. The man stumbled slightly, his sword swing going wide and missing the red-head completely. The graceful woman used this advantage immediately, entwining one of her legs with the confused soldier's own unsteady pair as she whirled around behind him and delivered a hard, flat-handed blow to the back of his neck. The soldier sprawled to the ground and remained there, groaning as he rolled around slightly.

By now, Catherine's first spell had worn off enough that the commander was able to regain most of his senses. He looked around for a moment, noticing that all of his men were down. He blinked a few times, not comprehending the situation at all, shaking his head to try to clear it. After a few shakes, it worked enough that he was at least able to notice the head of the heartwood staff now being held in front of his face.

"W-we s-surrender!" he exclaimed as soon as he had enough control of his own mind to form the words.

"I'm sure you do, now enjoy your painful death," Catherine said icily as she once again gathered her energy, but before she could release the spell on the commander, she heard a cry of "Wait!" and suddenly found her staff being wrenched upwards. The spell fired off at the ceiling, burning a small furrow into the wood.

"What do you think you're doing?" Catherine yelled, rounding on the red-head who had just misdirected her spell, the mage's purple eyes ablaze with anger and unspent arcane energy.

"Please, the fighting is over, they surrendered, you won. Show them mercy!" the sister pleaded, a plaintive look on her face. A face which Catherine suddenly noticed was quite beautiful, and, now that Catherine was looking, she thought the rest of the woman looked quite good too— _Wait, what? Where did that come from? Focus, Catherine! Now's really not the time for _that_ sort of thinking!_ She gave herself both a mental and physical shake and suddenly realized that her face must look extraordinarily silly with her jaw hanging down dumbly and her facial expression a mix of anger, awe, and confusion.

"Um, mercy? You mean, uh, the mercy they would have shown you when they killed you for simply trying to stop a fight?" Catherine fought to compose herself, her voice regaining its confidence and getting louder as she spoke, her anger reasserting itself in her mind, "I appreciate the help, Sister, but this really isn't your fight, so let me handle this," She turned back towards the commander, who was still kneeling on the ground, watching Izzy warily as the giant dog stared him down from a few feet away, teeth bared.

"No!" the red-head persisted, quickly moving to stand between Catherine and the surrendered man, "You are a Grey Warden, Grey Wardens are honorable, no? There is no honor in killing a man who has surrendered!"

"I never got the chance to attend the Grey Warden seminar on honor before they all got killed, thanks to this guy's boss!" Catherine growled, gesturing her staff towards the commander.

"Please, hasn't there been enough death? Won't there be far more than enough in the days to come?" the sister implored, and the look on her face alone was nearly enough to make Catherine change her mind.

"I think she's right, they have surrendered, it… it wouldn't be right to kill them now," Alistair said quietly, finally deciding to make his opinion known.

"They would not have spared us if the situation was reversed, why should we give them what they wouldn't give us?" Morrigan added her opinion in as well, though Catherine wasn't entirely sure if that's what she really believed or if she just instinctually disagreed with Alistair.

Catherine stood glaring down at the commander for a few moments, rubbing a knuckle back and forth along her chin until she came to a decision.

"Take a message to Loghain. Tell him that we know the truth, we know about his betrayal. And we _will_ make him pay for it. Got it?" Catherine glowered down at the kneeling man, her voice dangerously quiet as she took a fair amount of dark pleasure from the irony of her now being the one towering over the man. The commander nodded quickly and moved to stand, but Catherine pushed him back down to his knees with her staff, "Oh, and make sure I never, ever run into you again. You will _not_ get another chance. _Got it?_" She lifted her staff off his shoulder, but kept her glower focused on the man's eyes.

"Y-yes," the soldier stammered out, scrambling to his feet and rushing out the door without even waiting for his surviving fellows, who quickly stumbled after their leader once Catherine threw them each a deadly glare.

As the last soldier exited, Catherine turned to the man that, judging by the angry expression and the hands planted on his hips, was the tavern keeper. "Sorry about the mess," Catherine said as she fished out a few coins to hand him before turning and heading towards the door. She stopped at the exit, turning towards her companions and the red-head, who all stood awkwardly in the middle of the room. Fighting the urge to roll her eyes, Catherine gestured for them to follow her outside, locking eyes with the sister as she did so.

_Beautiful eyes..._

Catherine shook her head at her own thoughts as she headed outside. She took a moment to look around, noticing that Loghain's men were already nowhere to be seen. She then moved towards a relatively empty corner of the village, her companions catching up to her and falling into step, the red-haired woman a few steps behind___,_ looking confused and more than a little nervous. As they reached an area where Catherine felt they could speak in privacy, she turned to the sister and spoke.

"So, mind telling me who you are?"

"My name is Leliana, I am, or rather I _was_, a lay-sister here in the Chantry," the woman replied, smiling brightly.

_Such a radiant smile, it's like it got brighter out—_ _Ack! Stop it you mushy idiot! Concentrate!_

"A lay-sister, hm?" Catherine's eyes narrowed in suspicion after she had cleared her mind enough to consider what the woman had said, "I wasn't aware the Chantry offered combat training to lay-sisters."

Leliana's cheeks flushed slightly, her eyes dropping to the ground.

"I was not always a lay-sister, I learned to fight before I joined the Chantry," the red-head said as she brought her face back up, her bright blue eyes meeting Catherine's dark purple once again, sending a small involuntary shiver down the mage's spine. Catherine could feel a slight blush forming on her cheeks as her whole body seemed to get suddenly very warm, her mind filled with… _something_ she couldn't quite understand. As she struggled to get her emotions in check, Catherine thought she noticed a matching blush upon the other woman's cheeks, but, if it existed at all, it faded quickly as the red-head began speaking once again, "As you saw in the tavern, I am quite skilled, even more so with a bow than with blades. I can handle myself quite well in a fight, and I have a few other skills that are quite helpful as well. That is why I am coming with you."

Catherine's brow shot up as the woman said the last part with the certainty of undeniable fact, and she heard an incredulous laugh from Morrigan and a few coughs from Alistair behind her.

"Um, what? Why would you want to come with us?" Catherine asked, a bemused look on her face.

"Those soldiers said you are Grey Wardens. You will be fighting the darkspawn, yes? That _is_ what Grey Wardens do. I know that after what happened at Ostagar you will need all the help you can get. That, and the Maker told me to join you," Leliana said, once again speaking with absolute certainty that what she had said was the truth, even if it sounded completely insane to Catherine's ears.

"More crazy? I thought we were all full up," Alistair mumbled quietly, though judging by the way Leliana's eyes suddenly shifted over to him, not quietly enough. Catherine could hear the creaking of Alistair's armor as he shifted uncomfortably. Morrigan just scoffed.

_Oh great, a Chantry fanatic that wants to tag along? Just what we need, someone to spout Chantry nonsense at us while we're trying to save the world. I'm sure Morrigan would just _love_ to listen to that, _Catherine thought as she eyed Leliana warily, _Then again, I might not mind hearing even Chantry bullshit if she's saying it with that lovely accent of hers— Oh stop it already! She's clearly a Chantry nut, and you're a mage who hates the Chantry! Not exactly a good match!_

"Uh, the Maker… told you to join us? Would you, um, care to elaborate on that?" Catherine asked slowly. Even though she knew it was preposterous, she was actually curious to know why the woman thought the Maker had spoken to her.

"I know it sounds insane—" the red-head began before being cut off by Morrigan and Alistair simultaneously saying "Yep," after which they both turned to glare at each other, "But it's true! I had a dream, a vision! Look at the people here," she gestured her hands at the village around them, "They are lost in despair and darkness, the Maker doesn't want this! What you plan to do is the Maker's work, and that is why I wish to help, why I believe the Maker wants me to help."

Despite wanting to tell the woman no simply because she was associated with the Chantry, and despite the possible craziness, Catherine forced herself to think about the offer logically. What Leliana had said about them needing help was true, _very_ true. And Catherine had been rather impressed by the woman's skill in the fight back at the tavern.

_Alright, I'll let her come along, what harm can it really do? If she starts talking Chantry nonsense too much, I can always just tell her to shut up, if Morrigan doesn't beat me to it. And it's not like those of us already in this little group are exactly 'sane.' I suppose you have to be a little insane to be trying to stop a Blight like this._

"Okay, fine, you can come with us," Catherine said simply, much to the surprise of her companions. Alistair sputtered slightly and Morrigan scoffed again.

"Perhaps your skull was cracked worse than Mother thought," the witch said sarcastically. At this, Catherine turned to the other two and frowned.

"She was right when she said we that we need all the help we can get," Catherine said, putting her hands on her hips and putting as much authority into her voice as she could, "As it is we're four against an entire _horde_ of darkspawn, not to mention Loghain and his army! I'll take whatever help is offered."

"I suppose you're right, Grey Wardens take allies where they can get them," Alistair shrugged and nodded, looking sheepish beneath Catherine's hard gaze. Morrigan glared back defiantly for a few more moments, but then she too shrugged.

"Do as you wish, Warden, but don't come complaining to me about whatever nonsense she decides to bring up next," Morrigan grumbled.

_Hmph, they wanted to let me take the lead, now they'll just have to deal with it! I'm taking these reins and running with it!_ Catherine thought with a small snicker before turning back to the red-head, who was frowning towards Morrigan. Catherine smirked at her newest companion, "Well, Leliana, welcome aboard. I hope you know what you're getting yourself into."

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**A.N.: Wow, that turned out longer than I originally planned, but I just couldn't find a good place to split it, so oh well, hope you made it through all of that! :P Hope you enjoyed! Please feel free to review, it'll encourage me to continue with the next part sooner! And if anyone is interested in beta'ing for me, send me a PM, it'd be great and much appreciated! Until next time!**


	2. Monsters in the Night

**AN: Sorry about the huge delay between the first chapter and this one. This is one of the chapters I didn't have quite so well thought out in my head when I had the idea for this story, so it took longer to get it sorted and written out. Holiday craziness also didn't help, hehe. But anyways, here's chapter 2, not so sure how I feel about it, because it kind of had a mind of its own while I was writing it, but I hope you like it anyways! :P**

As she sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking the village of Redcliffe, Catherine couldn't help but occasionally glance towards where the imposing Redcliffe Castle stood tall, proud, and (_Considering there's some powerful evil inside sending out monsters to attack the village_, Catherine thought), ominously quiet. Looking over the stone walls for what had to be the tenth time in the past ten minutes, Catherine wasn't able to suppress her nervous anxiety about the night to come. Her limbs twitched slightly while her mind's restlessness warred with her body's weariness.

The Grey Wardens and their companions, who now included the mysterious qunari, Sten, had spent the day helping the Redcliffe villagers prepare for another night of attacks from mysterious undead creatures. The creatures were apparently the risen corpses of some of the people that had been inside the castle when the attacks had begun a few days earlier. After running around convincing some people to help with the defense and solving a few relatively minor problems (_And far too many trips up and down that damned steep hill_, Catherine mentally scowled), the group now sat next to a windmill standing atop a cliff above the village, resting and waiting for nightfall.

As she absently stroked her hand against Izzy, who was lying beside the mage, Catherine turned slightly to examine the others. Alistair was leaning against the windmill next to some of the Redcliffe knights; his head lolled back, eyes closed, and loud snores sounding out from him as they always did when he slept. Catherine had thought she would dislike the man, simply because he had once been a templar-in-training, but he had turned out to be rather likable, in his own rather strange way. His sense of humor did have a habit of bringing a smile to Catherine's face, which wasn't all that easy to do, considering how dour her mood had been since she'd had the responsibility for all of Ferelden thrown on her shoulders. The mage couldn't help but appreciate him for that.

However, even more unexpected than finding herself liking a templar was finding out that he also happened to be the bastard son of King Maric. Catherine still wasn't sure how she felt about that particular secret. She'd felt her and her companions were already too high on Loghain's "List of People to Kill Off" even before she'd known she was traveling with someone who could potentially challenge him for the throne. Now she was absolutely certain they'd be drowning in Loghain's army, assassins, or Loghain's army _of_ assassins as soon as the traitorous general figured out where they were.

_Which makes it all the more important that we get Arl Eamon's help,_ Catherine thought, once again glancing towards the castle, _You'd better be alive by the time we get in there, you damned noble. I could really use some help with this whole saving the world business from someone who can actually… help._

Rolling her eyes at her own thoughts, Catherine turned her gaze towards where Sten was standing with his arms crossed, frowning towards the path that leads up to the castle, the path where the monsters would likely attack from. The qunari was certainly the quietest member of her group, he rarely ever spoke unless someone directed a question at him, and even then his response was always short and usually just a refusal to answer the question. His avoidance of inquiries into the details of how he'd come to be in the cage at Lothering they'd found him in was what made Catherine particularly uneasy though. All she knew was that the qunari had slain an innocent family of farmers in cold blood and then surrendered to authorities without any resistance, but as nervous as that made her feel, she couldn't pass up a skilled qunari warrior when she was trying to stop an entire Blight. She would just keep hoping that Sten would continue to only take his murderous urges out on their enemies, because magic or no magic, Catherine didn't fancy the idea of having to fight against the giant warrior.

Catherine turned her eyes away from Sten to continue her ponderings of her companions, finding herself looking towards Morrigan. The witch was sitting cross-legged well away from everyone else, as she always did, and appeared to be meditating.

_Probably just thinking up new ways to insult Alistair_, Catherine thought with a grin. Unlike with Alistair, Catherine had only been slightly surprised to find herself liking Morrigan eventually. Originally, Catherine found herself getting rather annoyed by Morrigan, mostly because of the bickering between the witch and Alistair, which seemed to be never-ending. She also didn't much appreciate Morrigan's tendency to argue with her regarding her decisions. It was apparently simply done for the sake of arguing, considering how she rarely offered an alternative. But after the occasional chat with the witch, Catherine had found quite a few similarities between herself and the other woman, they shared a cynical view on most things and neither of them was too fond of the Chantry. On top of that, Morrigan was an exceptionally powerful mage whose shapeshifting abilities were quite helpful in a pinch.

_It also helps that she's so attractive and wears clothing that leaves so little to my often over-active imagination_, Catherine thought with another wry grin. Though as her mind wandered towards more lecherous thoughts, she found her eyes inevitably moving towards her last companion: the red-headed bard who confused the mage even more than Sten did.

As if feeling Catherine's gaze upon her where sat looking out over Lake Calenhad, Leliana turned towards the Grey Warden, their eyes meeting for a moment before the red-head turned away quickly. The mage heaved a sigh and looked back over the village below, feeling the weight of a guilt she didn't really understand in the pit of her stomach. A guilt that made her even more anxious than thoughts of the upcoming battle.

While they'd been helping to prepare the village for the attack, Ser Perth, the senior of the small group of Redcliffe knights still in Redcliffe, had asked for holy protection from the village chantry's Revered Mother. However, the Revered Mother had nothing to offer, because, according to her and the Chantry, the Maker had turned his gaze away from the world and would not directly intervene. Instead of telling the knights that and making them even more nervous about the upcoming battle, Catherine had asked for some small Chantry trinkets, so that she could tell the knights they were imbued to help them, because, as Alistair put it, morale is a powerful thing.

Leliana had not been too pleased with this however, because she believed it to be a deception of the men's beliefs. When she had made her discomfort with the idea known, Catherine had let her weariness from the day get the better of her, and she'd snapped at the bard. The hurt in those bright blue eyes had made the mage feel immediately guilty. When Catherine had gone ahead and given the trinkets to the knights anyway, Leliana had walked off looking both hurt and angry. And so the guilt grew stronger and the mage grew even more confused.

Catherine knew why she was guilty, after only a few days of traveling with Leliana, she knew she was attracted to the bard. What confused Catherine was why she was having such strong feelings for the red-head, feelings so strong that she was almost unbearably guilty merely for upsetting the woman. Obviously the red-head was physically attractive. Catherine certainly found everything about the woman's body to be appealing: from her deep, blue eyes to that perfectly shaped rear that kept Catherine in the back of the group when they were traveling, so she could always have a nice view. But the mage knew it was more than physical, there was just… _something_ about the woman that drew Catherine to her like a moth to a flame.

In an attempt to figure out what that something was, Catherine had begun talking with Leliana quite often, and although the occasional bit of Chantry nonsense would irritate the mage a bit, Catherine found she very much enjoyed listening to the bard. Both her accent and the way she wove her stories with such enthusiasm kept Catherine completely enthralled, and the mage's enigmatic feelings for the Orlesian woman had gotten only stronger.

She'd also discovered that Leliana didn't entirely agree with the Chantry's views on the Maker either. The former lay sister apparently didn't believe that the Maker had fully turned away from the world and that his will still had an effect upon everyone and everything. Catherine had actually found that Leliana's beliefs about the Maker were quite similar to her own, and as a result, she felt even closer to the woman.

And as her feelings had gotten stronger, so had Catherine's confusion and frustration. She wasn't the type of person that ever felt this way. She'd always agreed with Morrigan's views on love: it's a weakness, a sham, nothing more than lust mixed in with a need to have someone that is "safe." But now…

_Now, I think I'm falling in love with someone I just met a few days ago,_ Catherine let out another sigh, _Great, just what I need when I'm trying to save the world._

She wanted to just let it go, but as she turned to look back at Leliana, seeing the bard's slightly slumped shoulders and face tilted downward, Catherine knew she wouldn't be able to. She knew she had to do something to cheer the bard up and gain her forgiveness or her guilt would drive her crazy.

_But how!_ Catherine pushed herself up off the ground with a huff of frustration and began to move towards the windmill, Izzy following at her heels. She was hoping that a little pacing might give her some sudden inspiration or, at the very least, wear her out enough to be able to catch a nap.

As she moved past where the knights and Alistair sat, she noticed a small patch of flowers wedged between the side of the windmill and a small boulder. Seizing the potential distraction, Catherine walked over and began looking through them for something her and Morrigan could use in their herbalism.

After a few moments of finding nothing, she was about to give up when a small white flower caught her eye. There wasn't anything particularly special about the appearance of the flower, but for some reason, Catherine found herself racking her brain trying to remember its name. In the Circle Tower she'd studied the different plants that could be found throughout Thedas, with particular focus upon those of Ferelden of course, but she mostly only remembered those that could be used in potions and alchemical mixtures, and this one certainly wasn't one of those.

_So why is it bugging me so much?_ Catherine thought, her frustration building once more as her brain decided to further confuse her. Before she could relieve some of her tension by burning the entire flower patch from existence, she suddenly realized what the flower was. _Andraste's Grace! Leliana would love this! Finally, some good luck!_

Catherine leaned over and quickly, but very carefully, picked the flower out of the small patch and stood back up, Izzy giving a quiet bark of approval behind her before moving to lie next to Alistair. She then turned to walk briskly towards where Leliana sat, with the flowers held behind her back. The red-head looked up as she approached, a hint of wariness showing in her eyes.

"Hey," Catherine started, fighting her feelings of awkwardness as she stood besides the seated bard, "I um, I wanted to apologize. For what happened earlier."

"What's done is done," Leliana replied in a flat tone, making Catherine's guilt sink even further into the pit of her stomach, "It's not worth worrying about, hopefully it… helps tonight." The red-head turned her face away from the mage, her voice sounding dismissive.

"I shouldn't have snapped at you, I'm just not used to this whole leadership thing, you know?" Catherine said quietly, moving to sit beside the other woman, "But I didn't come over here just to make excuses. I um, found something that I think you'll like." The mage pulls the flowers out from behind her and hands them over to Leliana, who takes them after a moment of hesitation, confusion written all over her face.

_Which just makes it look all the cuter,_ Catherine thought as she stared at the red-head's full lips, which she belated realized were moving, _Stop drooling and pay attention to what she's saying, you idiot!_

"Flowers? Um, thank you, they're quite pretty," Leliana said uncertainly.

"Smell them," Catherine replied simply, a small smile on her face as she watched the bard bring the blooms up to her face to take in a deep breath. The mage's smile grew wider as she saw Leliana's face brighten noticeably as soon as the flowers' scent filled her nose.

"These were my mother's flowers! I don't… I can't…" the usually eloquent bard stumbled over her words for a few moments as she turned once again to face Catherine, smiling brilliantly, "You remembered me mentioning them to you! That's so sweet! Thank you so much!" With that, the bard leaned over and wrapped the mage in a tight hug, her leather armor creaking softly as her arms went around Catherine's shoulders. The feeling of the other woman's warm body pressing against her own sent small, pleasurable shivers down Catherine's spine as she returned the hug.

As Leliana pulled back to smile at her, Catherine had to turn away to hide her flushed face, letting the breeze cool her reddened cheeks. After regaining her composure, Catherine looked back at Leliana, hoping the bard hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary in her behavior, but, judging by the small smirk on the red-head's face, she had.

"So, we're okay, right?" Catherine asked cautiously.

"Of course!" Leliana responded instantly, "I'm sorry I got so moody, I thought that you might... well, that you might regret allowing me to join you."

"Not at all! You've been a great help, and I don't just mean your lock-picking and bow skills," Catherine said emphatically, but she faltered slightly as she approached the topic of her feelings for the other woman, "You've been… you've been a great help to _me_, personally. I um, I really enjoy talking to you."

"And I enjoy talking to you too!" Leliana smiled vividly once again, leaning her head onto Catherine's shoulder as she sighed happily, fiery strands of her hair spilling down the mage's back, "You're such a good friend."

_Friend. She said… friend_, Catherine suddenly realized that she'd been so caught up in trying to figure out her own feelings for the bard, she'd never stopped to consider the fact that it was unlikely Leliana would return those feelings, _Most women aren't interested in other women you self-absorbed twit!_

Suddenly feeling very uncomfortable being so close to the object of her likely-unrequited desires, Catherine stretched and did her best to pull off a convincing fake yawn. Leliana's head came up and she smiled.

"We should both probably get some rest while we can, we have a long night ahead of us," Leliana said, standing up as she cast a dark look towards the Redcliffe Castle. Catherine followed her gaze and nodded.

"Yeah, good idea," Catherine said, taking the hand Leliana offered to help the mage up. As their hands clasped, both women quietly gasped as an almost-electric shock ran through them both. The two women froze, staring into each other's eyes for a moment before they both looked away and Leliana pulled the mage up, releasing her hand quickly. The bard gave Catherine a shy smile, a bright blush on her pale face, before moving off towards where the group had piled their equipment, leaving the Grey Warden standing there, stunned.

_What was that? What happened when our hands touched? Did I just imagine all that? More importantly, did I imagine Leliana's reaction to it?_ Catherine pondered, trying to be inconspicuous as she watched Leliana go through her pack, _No, she felt something too when she grabbed my hand, and she was definitely blushing. But maybe it doesn't mean what I think it does. Or maybe it means exactly what I think it does. Ugh! Why does this have to be so confusing? _This _is why I never wanted to fall for someone!_

Catherine let out a small groan and gave herself a full-body shake as she waited for Leliana to settle onto the ground for her nap. When the bard's eyes closed, Catherine moved over to the pile of gear and quickly pulled out her own blankets and went to find a soft patch of ground to rest upon. As she laid down and closed her eyes, shifting around to find a relatively comfortable spot, she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep with all the thoughts racing through her mind.

_It's definitely going to be a very long evening…_

* * *

A few hours later, Catherine was awoken from the restless sleep she'd only been able to fall into an hour before by an armored hand gently shaking her. She rolled over and looked up to find the dimly lit silhouette of a fully-armored Alistair leaning over her. Only a sliver of light was glowing across the starry sky as dusk turned to night, the moon's glow offering more illumination than the wisps of sunlight.

"Sorry to wake you, but Ser Perth says the attacks could start any time now," Alistair said quietly as he stood back up and walked towards where their companions and the Redcliffe knights stood. Catherine followed, gathering up her blankets and making her way to her pack. She stuffed her blankets away and grabbed her staff before joining the others.

Sten was still standing in what appeared to be the same spot he'd been standing in before Catherine had settled down to rest. Morrigan was picking at her nails, looking disinterested as she stood with her back towards everyone else. The only sign she was prepared for battle was her staff leaning into the crook of one of her elbows. Izzy was pacing around where the group was gathered, stopping occasionally to sniff at the air, his whole body tensing until he apparently decided whatever he had scented was no danger and went back to his laps. And Leliana…

_Is staring at me quite intently,_ Catherine thought, trying to suppress a smile as the bard realized she'd been caught and turned away quickly, apparently suddenly absorbed in a conversation two of the knights were having, _I definitely didn't imagine everything that happened earlier, but it still might not mean to her what it does to me. Gah, when did I turn into such a complete and utter sap? This is _not _what I should be thinking about right now._

As if to punctuate this thought, a scream sounded up from the village below and all but one of the faces of the gathered defenders snapped towards the village. Catherine, however, could already see what had set off the scream: a haze of _something_ that looked quite unfriendly had suddenly begun spreading across the bridge leading from the island the castle was set upon to the mainland.

"Here they come," Catherine said quietly, her companions turning first towards her and then, following her line of sight, towards the castle. Catherine looked at Ser Perth, "Is the oil all set?"

The knight nodded as he pulled his sword and shield up to the ready, the rest of the defenders fanning out around him, taking positions behind the wooden spikes that had been set into the ground along the path leading up to the castle. The half dozen knights, Alistair, and Sten stood at the front, concentrated upon the holes in their make-shift barricade. Behind them stood Berwick, the elf who had been spying on the village for Loghain, who Catherine had forced into the defense in exchange for not punishing him for working on behalf of Loghain. Also with him were a few of the village militia's archers, Leliana, and Morrigan. Catherine also took a place amongst them, motioning for Izzy to stay between the ranged fighters and the forward line, to intercept anything that got through the knights.

As the haze worked its way down the path, the defenders began to hear the sounds of deathly groans and a strange shambling noise. The sounds sent a chill down Catherine's spine. She'd read all about corpses that had been risen by Fade spirits while studying in the Circle, but there was a world of difference between that and having to face them. Their very existence was entirely unnatural and even more worrisome for Catherine was that many of the spells she was most effective with would be unlikely to have any effect on corpses.

As Catherine mentally went through all the spells she knew, trying to figure out which ones to use and which not to, the haze rounded the final bend and the creatures became visible in the dim light of the torches the defenders had set up around their makeshift camp. Catherine's every muscle tensed as she got her first look at the half-rotted corpse of what must have been a castle guard. The face was barely distinguishable as having once been human, bits of armor and clothing had been torn off to reveal tattered, decomposing flesh beneath. The monster didn't carry any weapons, but it had somehow grown wicked looking claws that Catherine had no intention of letting anywhere near her.

The creatures hesitated for a moment before a series of strange shrieks sounded out from among them, and they charged forward as if the cries were a signal.

"Light the oil! Burn these monsters!" Ser Perth yelled, and a few of the archers launched fiery arrows into the ground just in front of the spiked-barricade. The small flames on the arrows lit an inferno upon the ground just as the front rank of the monsters reached the barricade. Catherine expected them to fall to the ground as the fire engulfed the entirety of their dry, decomposing bodies, but instead they just continued forward. One of the Redcliffe knights was caught off guard as a fiery corpse threw itself at him; he went down with a cry of horror as the thing collapsed upon him, but before the monster could sink its claws into the downed man Sten moved forward. The qunari moved with surprising quickness and swung his sword in a perfect arc through the creature. The monster went flying, one half of its burning torso going one direction and the rest of it going another.

After that, battle was fully joined. As the injured knight scrambled to pull himself away from the front, the other knights, along with Alistair, formed small phalanxes with their shields, blocking off the only ways through the barricade. The corpses threw themselves against the defenders' line with abandon, but the warriors lashed out with their shields, sending many of them sprawling back into the flames. Catherine noticed that the fires _were_ having an effect on the monsters, as some of the knocked down corpses didn't get back up.

Sten held one of the paths through the barricade all by himself, his sword swinging out before him to cleave the monsters charging at him into two. His strikes were as graceful as they were dangerous, perfectly aimed and swung, holding off the charging monsters just as well as the walls of shields the knights were presenting.

Alistair was shoulder to shoulder with two of the knights, the three warriors smashing their shields into corpses, forcing the enemies to remain within the oil-fed inferno. As the damaged, burning creatures stumbled forward once again the knights and Alistair would lash out with their swords, felling the monsters with well placed strikes. Occasionally one of the corpses would manage to force itself over the barricade to try to get at the archers and mages, but Izzy was always quick to bring it down. The massive mabari would charge into the legs of the creature, snapping the bones and immobilizing it, leaving it for one of the ranged defenders to finish it with a spell or arrow.

Morrigan and Catherine were firing their spells off rapidly, both mages breathing heavily with their magical exertions as they hexed, burned, drained, and blasted the unholy energy from the monsters. As Catherine fired one of her hexes into the closest few enemies, a gust of wind wafted the smell of the blazing corpses into her and she nearly doubled over as the stench of burning, rotten flesh washed over her. Fighting back her nausea, Catherine noticed she wasn't the only one affected as the others around her coughed and gagged for a moment before continuing with their attacks.

The archers fired arrow after arrow over the heads of the knights, though the damage they appeared to be doing was minimal, the corpse barely slowing their charge as arrowheads buried themselves into their chests. The mage did notice however, as she blasted a corpse with a bolt of arcane energy, that some of the arrows were lodging themselves in the skulls of the monsters, bringing them down instantly. Taking a quick glance to confirm her suspicions, Catherine saw Leliana taking careful aim, then releasing an arrow that flew straight and true right into the eye-socket of one of the shambling creatures.

_That's my girl!_ Catherine thought with a wicked grin as she turned back towards the fight and reached out with her will to fill one of the last few corpses rounding the bend in the path with a volatile, magical poison. Just as her target reached the back ranks of where the monsters were piled up against the barricade, she paralyzed it and launched a few hexes of vulnerability into the creatures around the infected enemy. Even as she did that, she saw Leliana taking aim again out of the corner of her eye, and just as the mage expected, the next arrow flew right into the paralyzed creature. For a heartbeat nothing happened, and then suddenly the frozen monster forcefully exploded in a gory mess. The corpses nearest the center of the explosion were blasted into pieces and the rest were knocked off their feet. Even the knights, Alistair, and Sten were nearly knocked onto their backs by the concussion, stumbling back from the barricade.

The archers continued to fire into the downed creatures, more of them scoring killing shots on the immobile enemies as the warriors at the front waded forward and began dispatching the few creatures that were beginning to push themselves up off the ground.

Catherine paused, looking around and not seeing any more targets. She started to take in a deep breath, but then once again noticed the terrible stench and thought better of it.

_Is that it? Was that all of them? That wasn't so bad…_

In answer to her silent questions, a militiaman ran up the hill behind her yelling.

"They're coming out of the lake to attack the village! Hurry! We need help keeping them from breaking into the chantry!"

"Go!" Ser Perth yelled, "We will hold here to make sure no more get down to you!"

Catherine let out a deep sigh as her companions began to run down the hill after the militiaman, but before she could follow, she felt a hand on her shoulder give her a small squeeze. She turned to find Leliana giving her an encouraging smile. The two women looked into each others' eyes for a heartbeat before Leliana gave the mage's shoulder another squeeze and then moved to follow the rest of their group.

_I was definitely wrong before_, Catherine thought as she too began running down the hill, _If love is such a weakness, I wouldn't feel like I could take on the world after such a little gesture as that._ Catherine couldn't help another grin, _I'm going to make these undead properly _dead_! And then I'm going to figure things out with Leliana. And then I'll end that damned Blight just to top it all off, because I am a Grey Warden, and that's just what we do._


	3. Infiltrating the Castle

"Join the Grey Wardens. Meet interesting people. Travel through dark, dank, and _smelly_ tunnels. And of course, kill lots and lots of bad things!" Alistair said in a hushed, but humorous, voice as he, Catherine, and the rest of their companions made their way through a secret tunnel leading into the Redcliffe Castle. The damp, rocky tunnel was cramped to say the least. Even Catherine, who was shorter than average, had to duck her head slightly. Sten on the other hand was forced to move sideways through the narrow passage while leaning almost halfway over. It was almost a miracle that he fit at all.

It was the morning after Catherine and the others had helped the Redcliffe villagers hold off the undead attacks. Though the major attack had ended after only roughly an hour of battle, it had still been a long night of intermittent attacks, but together the defenders had held. After a very short victory celebration and memorial service for those who had died, Bann Teagan had shown them the entrance to the tunnel inside the windmill overlooking the village and given them the key to opening it. However, before the Bann could lead them into it, Lady Isolde, Arl Eamon's wife, had come out of the castle, completely unharmed, and demanded that Teagan follow her into the castle to help her son, Connor. Despite the fact that it was quite obviously a trap of some sort, Teagan had followed Isolde into the castle through the front gates, though he first instructed Catherine and her companions to go through the tunnel. The mage found herself a bit irritated with how quickly the Bann gave her and her group orders, but she didn't see much other choice if she wanted to get Eamon's help.

_Or maybe I'm just irritated because of the fact that I'm now practically crawling through one of the filthiest places I've ever seen, _Catherine thought unhappily, _you'd think the Arls of Redcliffe would at least clean out their emergency tunnel every couple centuries or so. And seriously, what is that smell?_

"Would you be quiet, you foolish man?" Morrigan hissed from behind Catherine, "In case you didn't notice, we're trying to _sneak_ in, not waltz in and announce ourselves."

At the head of their little column, Alistair stopped and turned to glare down the line at the witch, but before he could retort Catherine reached past Sten, who stood between her and Alistair, and gave her fellow Grey Warden a light shove.

"You two can continue bickering like an old married couple _after _ we get out of here. For now, let's just concentrate on exiting this Maker forsaken tunnel before it decides to collapse from old age," Catherine smirked, "Or the smell kills us. Not sure which is more likely to come first."

Alistair chuckled as he turned and continued down the tunnel. Catherine then heard Leliana let out a soft giggle from the back of the group. The mage turned and flashed the bard a grin and a wink, receiving a bright smile in return. She also received an eye-roll and a frown from Morrigan as the witch scoffed and pushed past Catherine to continue down the tunnel, muttering something about hypocrites under her breath.

Leliana stepped up to Catherine, reaching one hand out to gently squeeze the mage's upper arm for a short moment before lightly pushing the Grey Warden forward.

"Come on then, you," Leliana said with a smile as her eyes met Catherine's and, as always, sent a pleasurable shiver down the mage's spine, "We still have more of those 'bad things' to kill."

"But there's _always_ more bad things," Catherine sighed again with mock exasperation, allowing herself to stare into the bard's alluring eyes for a few more moments before giving the other woman another smile and turning to continue down the tunnel.

* * *

A few minutes later the group reached the end of the tunnel, and with relieved sighs (and a happy whine from Izzy) Alistair pushed open a trap door and they all climbed the ladder into Redcliffe Castle. There were a few unhappy groans though as they found themselves in another dark, dank, and smelly place, presumably the castle dungeons.

_Well, at least the smell is… different here. Ah variety, the spice of life,_ Catherine thought sardonically.

Alistair pushed open the only door leading out of the small room they'd climbed into and poked his head out before quickly pulling it back and turning to the others.

"Like I said, lots and lots of bad things," Alistair said as her pointed his thumb over his shoulder towards the next room, "Three more waiting for us in there. They seem to be trying to get _in_ to one of the cells in there for some reason. Dunno why they'd do something like that, but who really knows what motivates walking corpses?"

"Hunger," Sten said very matter-of-factly. For a few moments the group just stared at the qunari, who simply looked at the door as if he could see the monsters through it. Alistair broke the silence with a cough.

"Right, well then, thanks for that insight Sten. Just what I wanted to hear before I go in to fight the things," Alistair said with obviously forced humor before nodding towards Catherine, who nodded right back. The templar then pushed the door open and charged forward, the rest of the group right behind him.

The fight was quick, the group dispatching the three creatures without much difficulty, having spent much of the last eight hours killing dozens of them. As the last undead fell, a voice sounded out of the cell the creatures had been clawing at.

"Hello…? Is there someone out there? Who is it?"

Catherine stopped in her tracks quite suddenly as she immediately recognized the voice. She then pushed her way through Alistair and Sten and moved in front of the cell just in time to see Jowan, her oldest and closest friend from the Circle, stepping out of the shadows at the back of his prison.

"By all that's holy… Catherine! I don't believe it!" Jowan exclaimed as he rushed to the cell door.

"You know, I should have known as soon as I was recruited to be a Grey Warden that I'd somehow end up running into you again," Catherine said flatly, keeping her face completely impassive as she stared at her fellow mage.

Jowan cowered back slightly, some of the relief fading from his eyes to be replaced with a hint of fear. But it went away quickly as Catherine's face broke into a grin and she let out a chuckle.

"What in the name of the Maker are you doing here, Jowan?" Catherine questioned as she reached a hand through the bars of the door, which Jowan quickly shook, a relieved smile on his face, "Didn't you realize that the chantry here would have templars?"

"I wasn't put here by the templars," Jowan said softly, his face falling as he sighed, "The castle guard put me here. They did with me what they do to all traitors and would-be assassins."

"Traitor and would-be assassin? Wow, Jowan, you really full-on embraced the whole 'evil blood mage' thing, didn't you?" Catherine responded, her arms crossing and her smile disappearing, "Are you the one responsible for all of this?" The Grey Warden mage waved a hand towards the fallen undead creatures.

"No! I was already imprisoned when all of the killing started. I… I'll explain everything," Jowan said quietly, "But first, please, I have to know one thing. What became of Lily? They didn't hurt her, did they? I can't stand to think that… that she paid for my crimes."

Lily had been a Chantry initiate working at the Circle Tower who Jowan had been secretly involved with. In the events that had led up to Catherine being recruited into the Grey Wardens, she had helped her friend and Lily when they attempted to escape the Tower after Jowan was accused of being a blood mage. Before the couple was able to make their escape, they and Catherine had been confronted by a group of templars led by their commander, Greagoir, and the Circle's First Enchanter Irving. It was during this confrontation that Jowan revealed that he really had been dabbling in blood magic when he unleashed a powerful blood spell upon the templars and Irving, knocking them all unconscious instantly. Lily was distraught when she discovered Jowan really was a blood mage and had refused to accompany him in his escape.

"Greagoir sent her away. To the mage-prison, Aeonar," Catherine answered Jowan's question quietly, "I'm sorry Jowan, there was nothing I could do. In fact, if I hadn't been recruited into the Grey Wardens right then and there I probably would have been sent off with her."

"Oh my poor Lily, she must hate me now," Jowan muttered to himself before looking back up at Catherine, "But at least you're alright… and a Grey Warden. I suppose I should congratulate you, though judging by the all that filth on your robes, maybe not."

"Yeah, it's not exactly a great time to be a Grey Warden right now, but that's a long story best saved for another time," Catherine crossed her arms once again, for the first time realizing that the terrible smell she'd be mentally complaining about might be coming from her robes. She pushed that from her thoughts and gave Jowan a firm look, "Besides, you still have some explaining to do."

For the next couple of minutes the group listened to Jowan explain how he had been hired by both Isolde and Loghain. Isolde had hired him, unbeknownst to her husband, to tutor Connor in how to hide the magical abilities he'd begun to show signs of, so that he would not be taken away to the Circle. Loghain, on the other hand, had hired Jowan to poison Eamon. When Isolde discovered what Jowan had done to her husband, she'd had the mage thrown in the dungeon. Then, when the creatures had begun terrorizing the castle, Isolde believed it to be Jowan's doing and so had the blood mage tortured. Jowan wasn't able to say or do anything to convince Isolde it wasn't his fault, so she left him to rot.

"I don't even know if Eamon still lives. I feel terrible," Jowan almost looked to be on the verge of tears now, "Loghain said Eamon was a threat to Ferelden and promised that he'd set things right with the Circle, so that I could return. I didn't want to do it, Eamon is a good man, I don't see how he could possibly be a threat, but it was do what Loghain asked or be handed over to the templars. Maker, I made so many mistakes, disappointed so many people. I wish I could go back and make everything right!"

"Well, unfortunately you can't. While I definitely won't say you did the right thing, Jowan, I guess I can't really blame you for trying to save your own hide," Catherine said as she scratched at her chin, ignoring the cough that sounded out of Alistair behind her, "So, if you didn't start all this undead nonsense, it was Connor wasn't it?"

"He's too young and not strong enough to control all of this himself; he must have done something to tear the Veil somehow. If that's what he did, it would have allowed powerful spirits and demons to infiltrate the castle to kill and create these creatures," Jowan explained as he leaned against the bars of his cell door, still looking distressed.

"So what do you intend to do about it?" Catherine asked pointedly, raising a brow towards the imprisoned mage.

"I don't want to run away from what I've done anymore, I've got to find some way to fix this. You were my friend once, and I know I don't deserve to call you that anymore, but please, I need your help to make this right."

"Oh come off it Jowan, we've known each other for almost as long as I can remember. I know you're not evil. Sure, messing with blood magic in the middle of the Circle Tower wasn't exactly a smart move. And yes, you have made quite a few big mistakes lately, but you always have the best intentions, I know that," Catherine gave Jowan a small smile, "Of course we're still friends. And of course I'll help; I was already planning on fixing all of this anyway. Now how to get this cell open—"

"Um, excuse me, this is a blood mage. You can't just go setting blood mages free!" Alistair cut in suddenly, sounding angry.

"Better to slay him then? Better to punish him for his choices? Is this Alistair that speaks or the templar?" Morrigan responded scathingly.

"I'd say it's common sense," Alistair bit back, "We don't even know the full story yet!"

Catherine turned to once again stop the two's bickering, but as she spun around Leliana caught her gaze.

"He wishes to redeem himself," the bard said very softly, her voice thick with emotion for some reason, "Doesn't everyone deserve that chance?"

"Like yourself, you mean?" Morrigan asked, sounding almost mocking.

Leliana's gaze flickered towards Morrigan and the softness and the vulnerability there that Catherine had been staring into hardened immediately as she glared at the witch, arms crossed.

"Everyone deserves a chance to redeem themselves in the Maker's eyes, this man no less than any," Leliana responded, her head held up defiantly as if to challenge Morrigan. The witch's yellow eyes narrowed as she prepared to take the bard up on her challenge, but before she could Catherine spoke up once again.

"Leliana is right. Jowan is my friend and I know he means well. I'm going to give him his chance to redeem himself," Catherine said as she moved towards where the formerly-undead corpses lay on the stone floor. She looked over the creatures for a few moments (not without a fair amount of disgust) before finding a key, which she took and then used to open Jowan's cell.

"Thank you, Catherine, for giving me another chance and for trusting me again," Jowan said as he stepped forward and, after a few moments of hesitation, embraced Catherine in a friendly hug. Catherine smiled and hugged her friend back, until she heard the faint sound of Leliana clearing her throat, which only made Catherine smile wider as she stepped back from Jowan.

"So, are you going to come with us then, Jowan? We could use your help," Catherine suggested as she resisted the urge to glance at Leliana.

"I… I would, but I haven't had any food or water in days and you know as well as I do that I was never all that powerful to begin with…" the apostate trailed off, cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Catherine quickly reached into her pack and pulled out some of the food she kept there, along with a couple of her healing salves, a lyrium potion, and her canteen.

"Here, take these, stay here and recover for a little bit. We'll go in and clear out the undead, come find us when you're able to. Alright?"

"Thank you so much, Catherine," Jowan said before quickly gulping down some water, "I promise I'll come find you as soon as I can." Catherine nodded and smiled before gesturing for her companions to follow her through the next door.

* * *

After battling through room after room full of undead and demons, and even a room full of crazed mabari that had nearly managed to tear half of the group to pieces, the companions found themselves in the castle's courtyard. As they stepped out into the sunlight, they were immediately met with a hail of arrows launched by undead archers from a walkway above. Most ricocheted harmlessly off of Alistair and Sten's heavy armor and the rest were caught by quick spells from Morrigan and Catherine.

"Move! We have to get up to those archers!" Catherine cried as she pointed her staff towards the large staircase leading up to the raised walkway, where both the archers and the door into what must be the castle's main hall waited. The same stairway that a half dozen more undead were charging down.

The Grey Wardens and their allies ran forward, dodging and blocking arrows as they ran, even as Leliana and the mages returned fire, managing to pick off a few of the archers. Alistair, Sten, and Izzy charged headlong into the advancing sword-wielding creatures. Sten stopped just short of running into the monsters and swung his sword horizontal to the ground, cleaving two of the undead in half. Alistair charged straight into one, plowing it over with his shield before dispatching it with a swift blow from his sword as the monster lay on the ground, and Izzy tackled another one and pinned it down before tearing its head from its shoulders with his powerful jaws.

The rest of the first group of the enemies was quickly dispatched as Catherine, Morrigan, and Leliana continued to exchange fire with the archers, but before Alistair, Sten, and Izzy could move up the stairs to finish them off there was a flash from the other side of the courtyard and suddenly there was a large, menacing, black-armored figured standing there holding a very large sword and shield.

_Oh shit! That's a revenant!_ Catherine thought with a hint of panic as she remembered her lessons about these undead creatures. They were similar to the rest of the undead the group had encountered, except they were possessed by one of the two most powerful types of demons: desire or pride. Most of what she knew about them suggested they should be avoided whenever possible. _Well, that's just not an option here._

"Sten, Izzy, go up there and finish off the archers, everyone else, we get big boy over there!" Catherine ordered quickly as she fired off a spell towards the revenant, which raised its shield and shrugged off the powerful blast of arcane energy with contemptuous ease. Before Catherine could do anything else, the revenant thrust the tip of its sword into the ground and reached a hand towards the mage, making a grasping motion. Then, as if grabbed by a strong, invisible hand squeezing at her painfully, Catherine found herself hurtling through the air towards the dark-armored creature, even as she felt her life-energy slowly being drained.

"Catherine!" Leliana cried out fearfully as the Grey Warden slammed into the ground face first directly in front of the revenant. Catherine lifted her head from the grass, blood dripping from her nose, feeling pain throughout her entire body from first being in that vice-like telekinetic grip and then from hitting the ground _quite_ hard. She looked up to see the revenant lift a heavy plate boot over her head and she had only enough time to close her eyes and think one last thought of how she wished she could have kissed Leliana just once before—

THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!

With rapid-fire precision three arrows lodged themselves one by one in the revenant's chest, knocking it back a couple steps.

"Catherine, move!" Catherine heard Leliana called out from behind her as a bolt of electricity shot over the prostrate mage's head and blasted into the demon-possessed corpse, knocking it back another step. Catherine forced the pain coursing through her to the back of her mind and pushed herself off the ground even as Alistair charged forward to slam his shield into the revenant. The undead responded by swinging its sword around towards Alistair's neck, but the templar parried and backed away enough for Leliana to fire off another couple of arrows and for Morrigan to launch another spell. The templar then charged back in to exchange blows with the monster.

Catherine scrambled away from where the two were locked in sword combat. Getting back to her feet she grabbed her staff from where it had fallen during her telekinetically induced flight. The casters wore down the revenant's energy and unholy resilience to spells, Leliana launched more arrows into the creature, burying them into its side, legs, and even one in its head. Though unlike with the weaker undead, the headshot only dazed the revenant.

Fortunately though, Alistair was able to take advantage of the daze, pushing forward to knock aside the revenant's shield with his own and then sweeping his sword around in a high arc that struck through the monster's neck, severing its head completely. As the helmeted head bounced along the ground, the rest of the revenant went limp, the black armor seemingly evaporating as the body fell, leaving only the relatively normal looking headless corpse of what had once been a castle guard.

Catherine looked around quickly, noticing that Sten and Izzy were already on their way back down the stairs, after having finished off the archers. With the fight over, Catherine's adrenaline began to wear off and the pain she had pushed aside in the heat of the fight surged back with a vengeance. Catherine gasped and leaned on her staff heavily, swaying slightly and nearly tipping over completely, but Leliana moved to her side quickly and caught her, holding her up as the bard gave the mage a gentle hug.

"Thanks… for… saving me," Catherine panted out as she fought to catch her breath, the contact with the red-head's body immediately easing some of the pain that the mage felt, even if such close proximity to the object of her desires didn't exactly make it any easier to breath.

"I was so scared it wouldn't be in time. I… I thought I was going to lose you," Leliana whispered softly, her arms closing around the mage tighter.

"Lose me?" Catherine asked, pulling her face back to look into the bard's eyes with small smirk and a raised brow.

_Don't read too much into it, Catherine, wishful thinking will only make it worse when you find out she doesn't really feel for you the way you want her to_, a corner of the mage's mind reminded her, but she couldn't help the warmth spreading through her chest as she saw something in Leliana's deep blue eyes, something that she couldn't help but think must be reflecting from her own.

"I… uh, yes. As um, my friend. And as our leader," Leliana said, her cheeks flushing a bright crimson as she looked away from the mage's eyes. Catherine just smiled wider and went to pull the bard's face back towards hers. Her still-slightly-adrenaline-affected mind fully intended to make the all or nothing choice by confirming whether or not Leliana did return her feelings by just kissing the woman. However, before she could make the leap of faith, she heard a cough and her gaze was drawn towards where Morrigan stood glaring at the two of them with her arms crossed. Alistair was scratching the back of his head looking rather uncomfortable, Sten stood in his normal statue-like pose, staring up at the doors leading into the castle at the top of the stairs, and Izzy was panting happily as he watched the embracing women, almost looking as if he was smiling.

_Well at least _one_ of them seems happy to see this_, Catherine thought as she made a mental note to get Izzy a very nice treat.

"If you two are _quite_ done with this sickening display, I think we have a rather significant problem to deal with," Morrigan huffed before moving towards the stairway. Catherine blushed lightly and nodded, giving Leliana one last squeeze before pulling away from the other woman.

"First, let's open that gate and get some reinforcement before we walk right into the heart of all this," Catherine said as she went towards the gate and found a lever to pull. There was the sound of gears turning and chains being pulled and the entryway was opened. Ser Perth and the other surviving Redcliffe knights moved into the courtyard immediately.

"Good job opening the gate," Ser Perth said to Catherine as he glanced around the courtyard before looking over the Grey Wardens and their allies, "Looks like you went through some heavy fighting. Once again I must thank you for everything you are doing for Redcliffe."

"Save the thanks for when this is finally over," Catherine said dismissively.

The Grey Wardens, their companions, and the knights moved up the stairs and stood just outside the large wooden doors that led into the castle. As the assembled defenders prepared themselves, Catherine drank a couple of her potions to ease the pain still lingering in her body and to restore some energy to her tired, drained muscles.

"The main hall is right through here. It's a big room, there could be many of the creatures waiting for us in there," Perth said, his sword and shield held at the ready.

"There can't be _that_ many more of them," Catherine frowned, "We've must've killed hundreds of them between the battle last night and our fight through the rest of the castle. How many could really be left?"

"I suppose the only way to find out is to go through this door," Perth responded.

_Join the Grey Wardens. See exciting places. Fight through an endless horde of undead monsters. Nearly get your head stomped into a bloody pulp by a super-undead. Now this is the life_, Catherine thought sarcastically, sighing as she nodded towards Perth. _At least I'm not bored._

* * *

**AN: So, originally I was planning for this chapter to finish up Redcliffe, but after I got about halfway through the confrontation with Connor, I realized it was waaay too long. In fact, I still wonder if my chapters are generally too long, so, please review and let me know whether you like the length as it is or if I should cut down on it a bit.**** Also, I had a bit of trouble with the Jowan scene, because originally I spent a few extra paragraphs summarizing most of what had happened with Jowan and Lily at the Tower, but then figured anyone reading this would probably already know what had happened there, so I cut back on that a bit. I'm still not sure where to draw the line on background info though, my natural instinct as an author is to explain stuff so that most everyone can understand what is going on, but at the same time, I'm sure most people reading this probably don't want to spend five paragraphs reading through background stuff they're already quite familiar with. So, any thoughts about how to handle that would be nice! And of course, any other thoughts/criticisms are always appreciated! Thanks for reading!**_  
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	4. Confronting Connor

**AN: So, sorry about the huge delay between this chapter and the last. I had a serious case of writer's block with this chapter, and I'm still not very happy with the first half. I promise it gets better towards the end! :P Again, I worry about the length. I thought about cutting it in half, but I kind of like how the fluff in the second half balances out all the drama in the first half. I hope that you guys like it too! Once again, if you have any critiques, advice, or comments, please leave a review! Did you know that every time you review someone's story, a kitten _and_ a puppy get their wings? Or something like that. Anyways, here's Chapter 4, hope you like it!**

* * *

"Everyone ready? No telling what's waiting for us in here," Ser Perth said as he looked around at his fellow knights, the Grey Wardens, and their companions. The gathered fighters nodded and then, with one final deep breath, Perth yanked open the large wooden double doors that would lead into the Redcliffe Castle's main hall. The knights, along with Alistair, charged in first, their shields held up in front of them, with the rest right behind them. However, what they saw inside made them all stop short quite suddenly.

The hall itself was what Catherine always imagined a castle's main hall to look like. It was richly, but tastefully, decorated. A long, large light blue rug with golden trim ran down the length of the hall, ending just short of the two small steps that led up to the slightly-raised section of the room where a throne-like chair sat, presumably where the Arl would sit during his audiences. Lifelike portraits of what Catherine assumed were previous Redcliffe Arls adorned the walls alongside tapestries bearing the rook of the Redcliffe crest, and a welcoming fire was roaring in the large fireplace at the other end of the room, behind the raised seat.

What Catherine and the others did not expect about the hall were its inhabitants. Instead of a horde of undead or more demons, they saw a half dozen fully alive guards standing around Isolde, Teagan, and a young straw-haired boy that Catherine assumed to be Connor. What was most bizarre to the group was the strange acrobatics Teagan was doing. The bann was rolling around and waving his arms like some sort of jester, while Connor watched it all with rapt attention. Teagan finished his display with a backward somersault and a flourish of his hands, a goofy looking smile fit for a clown upon his face, and then took a seat on the ground next to Connor, his strange smile still plastered on his face.

_You know, I have to hand it to the guy; he's pretty agile_, Catherine thought, fighting down a smile that she knew would be entirely inappropriate, given the situation.

With the show over, Connor's attention was finally drawn to the group of heavily armed and armored intruders standing on the other end of the room.

"So these are our visitors? The ones you told me about, Mother?" Connor's lips moved, but the voice that issued from them was not one that fit a young boy, it didn't fit _any_ human voice. It was lower than it should be and had a strange modulation to it that sent a shudder through Catherine.

_Great, he must possessed by a demon. This should be… interesting_, Catherine thought as she stepped forward, half expecting the apparently demon-enthralled guards to charge at her, but they simply stood where they were, staring at nothing.

"Y-yes, Connor," Isolde responded, her face a mask of sorrow and terror as she stared at her feet.

"And this is the one who defeated my soldiers? The ones I sent to reclaim my village?" the possessed-Connor asked as he stared intently at Catherine. The mage met the boy's gaze unflinchingly, trying with all her will to keep her face from showing her internal conflict.

_They always told me there's only one way to deal with an abomination, _Catherine thought with a mental grimace, _but they never told me the abomination might be a little boy!_

"And now it's staring at me! What is it Mother? I can't see it well enough," Connor said, which made Catherine's brow knit with confusion, she'd never heard of an abomination with eye-sight problems before.

"This… this is a woman, Connor. Just as I am," Isolde said quietly, looking as confused as Catherine felt while she finally moved her eyes to look at her son.

"You lie!" Connor yelled out, making Isolde take a frightful step backwards and stare back down at her feet, "This woman is nothing at all like you! Why, just look at her! Half your age and pretty, too. I'm surprised you don't order her executed in a fit of jealousy!"

Catherine quirked an eyebrow and felt suddenly very uncomfortable with the possessed boy's stare.

"Connor, I beg you, don't hurt anyone!" Isolde exclaimed as she stepped back to her son, holding her hands out towards the boy as a few tears escaped her hazel eyes. In response to his mother's pleading cry, Connor's demeanor suddenly changed and he brought a hand up to his head, swaying slightly where he stood as if light-headed.

"M-Mother?" the boy asked as he looked around confusedly, "What's happening? Where am I?"

"Oh, thank the Maker!" Isolde said as she dropped to her knees next to her son, "Connor! Connor, can you hear me?"

But unfortunately for the relieved mother, the reprieve was only temporary, the demon quickly reasserting its control over the boy.

"Get away from me, fool women! You are beginning to bore me!" Connor snapped and pulled away from Isolde. The arlessa stood back up and stared at her son with her mouth agape for a few moments before turning towards Catherine.

"Grey Warden… please don't hurt my son! He's not responsible for what he does!"

"I know that, it's quite obvious he's been possessed by a demon," Catherine said, giving Isolde her best sympathetic look, which she knew wouldn't be at all comforting to the mother, before turning back to Connor.

"It was the mage that poisoned Eamon! He summoned the demon! Connor was just trying to save his father!" Isolde said desperately.

"No, I'm afraid your son did that on his own," Catherine said softly, frowning at the boy.

"It was a fair deal!" Connor yelled out suddenly, shaking his fist in the air, "Father is alive, just as I wanted. Now it's my turn to sit on the throne and send out armies to conquer the world! Nobody tells me what to do anymore!"

"Nooobody tells him what to do!" Teagan laughed out from where he sat next to Connor, looking up at the boy, "Nobody! Ha ha ha!

"Quiet Uncle!" Connor growled as he looked down at Teagan, "I warned you what would happen if you kept shouting didn't I? Yes, I did!" The boy turned back to Catherine, "But let's keeps things civil. This woman will have the audience she seeks. Tell us, woman… what have you come here for?"

"I came to put a stop to all of this," Catherine responded simply, taking a few more steps forward as she brought her staff up in front of her, "No one is going to be sending out more undead armies."

"She wants to ruin my fun! But I'm not done playing yet! No! I won't allow it!" Connor yelled out madly, "I crave excitement! And action! This woman spoiled my sport by saving that stupid village, and now she'll repay me!"

With that, Connor ran out a side-door as the guards snapped out of their daze and charged forward. Teagan too, drew his sword and shield and ran towards Catherine, but Alistair moved up to intercept the bann, once again surprising the mage with his quick movements even while encased in heavy armor. The templar parried Teagan's first strike and then swung his shield around, catching the demon-influenced man in the side of his head, sending the noble to the ground in an unconscious heap.

The rest of the fight was over quickly as the outnumbered guards were overwhelmed by the attackers, the knights engaging their corrupted fellows, doing what they could to simply incapacitate the guards instead of killing them. Catherine and Leliana followed the knights' lead, but Sten and Morrigan had no such reservations, both of them slaying one of the guards.

With the combat over, Isolde quickly ran from where she'd been ducked to avoid any crossfire to help Teagan, who was slowly sitting back up and rubbing at the large bruise Alistair's shield bash had left on the side of his skull. The templar hovered nearby, sword still at the ready as Isolde offered Teagan a hand and helped the bann off the ground.

"Teagan! Teagan, are you alright?" the arlessa asked frantically.

"I am… better now, I think," Teagan said softly as he stood back up, "My mind is my own again."

Alistair relaxed, as did the rest of the rest of the group, though the knights seemed to be sending rather pointed glares towards Morrigan and Sten as they moved to help the surviving guards, who were also coming back to their senses.

_Oh well, a couple dead guards isn't all that big compared to everything else that has happened here,_ Catherine thought with a shrug as she moved towards Isolde and Teagan.

"Where did Connor go?" Teagan asked as he took Isolde's hands in his.

"He probably ran up to his room," Isolde said, casting a glance upwards, "All this violence must have scared him."

_That, or the demon realized it was outmatched and made a hasty retreat_, Catherine thought with a frown. _Who knows what it's up to up there? We need to figure this out quick._

"So, does anyone have a plan as to how we handle—" Catherine began, but the miserable look Isolde gave her made her falter, the mage opened and closed her mouth a few times as her brain worked to try to find some solution to their current problems that didn't involve one of them killing a child. Unfortunately she kept coming up with nothing, so she steeled herself to tell Isolde something that she knew the other woman most certainly didn't want to hear. Luckily for Catherine's conscience, Alistair beat her to it.

"There's only one way to deal with this," Alistair said quietly, his eyes staying fixed on the stone floor beneath him, "To get rid of the demon, we have to kill Connor."

"No!" Isolde exclaimed with an anguished sob, tears once again rolling out of her eyes freely, "You can't! My son is still in there, you saw it!"

"There's no other way," Alistair whispered, still refusing to meet Isolde's gaze.

"Actually, there is," a voice said from behind them.

Catherine spun on her heel and her lips curved into a small smile as she saw Jowan standing before them, eyeing the collected knights and guards cautiously as he slowly moved forward.

"You!" Isolde screamed, one of her arms rising to point accusingly at the fugitive mage, "What are you doing here? How did you get out of the dungeons! Arrest him! Now!"

"Wait," Catherine said, stepping between the knights and Jowan, "He got out of the dungeon because I let him out so that he could try to help us solve all of this. As I pointed out earlier, the demon and the undead is Connor's doing, accidental I'm sure, but it wasn't Jowan."

"But he did poison my husband!" Isolde cried, "I brought him here to help me and my son and he betrayed us!"

"I'm so sorry, I thought that—, "Jowan began to try to explain himself, but was cut off by Isolde.

"Enough! Perth, arrest him!"

"No," Catherine kept herself firmly between Perth and Jowan as she tried to keep her tone as diplomatic as possible, which, after having had only a few hours of sleep in the past two days, the mage found difficult to do, "I'm not saying that his poisoning of your husband should go unpunished, but Jowan just said that he knew of another way to get rid of the demon without killing Connor. Let's hear him out."

Without waiting for a reply, Catherine turned and gestured for Jowan to speak, silently praying that he had some miracle solution.

"There _is_ another way to get rid of the demon, but it involves going into the Fade and confronting the demon there," Jowan explained, "If the demon is defeated there, it will be unable to keep its connection to our world and Connor will be freed."

_This sounds way too easy,_ Catherine thought as she waited for the "but" that she knew had to be coming.

"But…"

_Damnit, I hate being right all the time._

"The ritual to send someone into the Fade requires a lot of magical energy. Usually it would take a lot of lyrium and quite a few mages, but I can use the energy in someone's blood to make up for that," Jowan hesitated for a few moments before continuing, "However, it will require _all_ of the energy in someone's blood to work."

"Meaning what, exactly?" Alistair asked, his hand having moved back to the hilt of his sword the moment Jowan entered the room, his eyes watching the blood mage's every tiny movement intently.

"Meaning, for this to work, someone will have to sacrifice their life," Jowan finished quietly, his face a mask of sorrow.

There was a long silence as everyone considered Jowan's words.

"I will do it," Isolde suddenly broke the silence with her bold statement, her tears stemmed by her sudden determination, "If it means you will not have to kill my son, I will gladly give up my life."

"Now wait just a minute!" Alistair exclaimed, "This is blood magic we're talking about! And that's a fugitive blood mage! I won't let you sacrifice yourself when we can't even be sure it will actually work!"

"It is not your choice to make!" Isolde cried, turning to glare at the former templar.

"She's right Alistair," Catherine said quietly to her fellow Grey Warden, "It's her son and her life. Therefore, I think this is her choice."

Alistair turned to stare at Catherine incredulously, looking both shocked and betrayed that she'd go along with this. Catherine gave him her best apologetic look, but once again, she knew that she fell far short of comforting.

"This is insane!" Alistair threw his hands into the air as he turned to the rest of their companions, looking for some support, but finding little. Morrigan looked bored, as if she was hardly paying attention to the conversation, and Sten was entirely impassive and silent, as usual. Leliana however looked thoughtful for a few moments before she suddenly spoke.

"You said the ritual is usually performed with a lot of lyrium and many mages, correct?" the bard asked, looking over at Jowan.

"Yes, but there are only three mages here, and I doubt you could have crammed the necessary amount of lyrium into your packs," Jowan responded regretfully.

"Ah, yes, but wouldn't the Circle Tower have both of those things in abundance?" Leliana asked as she turned to catch Catherine's gaze, "We have to go there for the treaty anyways, don't we? I'm sure we could convince them to come help the son of an important noble while we're there."

"It would take us a few days to go to and return from the Tower," Catherine pointed out, "Do you really think Connor will just sit up there and play with his toys while we're gone?"

"It's a risk we should take rather than go along with some blood magic ritual that involves Isolde sacrificing herself!" Alistair said, glaring at Catherine, "Do you really think Eamon will be happy to learn when he finally wakes up that we let his wife kill herself while he was bed-ridden and unconscious?"

_Don't you mean _if_ he finally wakes up?_ Catherine wisely decided to not voice that thought aloud.

"I think he'd prefer hearing that his wife gave up her life to save their son rather than hearing either that we killed Connor ourselves or that Connor and his demon pal went on a killing spree and slaughtered the whole damned village while we went on a stroll over to the Tower in the _hope_ that they could help us!" Catherine said instead, her voice steadily rising in volume until she was yelling and the air around her nearly crackling with magical energy. The strain from all the battles was combining with the strain of this difficult moral quandary to put her _very_ on edge.

Alistair, along with most of the others, gaped at her outburst. Before the other Grey Warden could respond, Leliana stepped between the two of them, facing Catherine. The redhead reached out to place a comforting hand on Catherine's shoulder and the mage felt herself relaxing slightly as she looked into those bright blue eyes.

"What should I do?" Catherine whispered so only Leliana could hear her.

"Do what you think is truly _right_," Leliana whispered back, giving Catherine a small smile and her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

Catherine heaved a sigh and turned to Teagan.

"Do you think, with Jowan's help, that you could keep Connor in check for a few days?" she asked.

"I think you cleared out most the undead," Teagan said as he scratched his jaw thoughtfully, "If you truly trust Jowan's intentions, then I think between him and the knights we can keep Connor from causing any more damage while you're away."

"I do trust Jowan," Catherine said as she gave her oldest friend another small smile and Teagan nodded his acceptance. Catherine rubbed her nose for a few moments, considering all her options as the weight of everyone's stares bored into her, "Alright then, we'll head to the Circle as fast as we can. First Enchanter Irving is a good man, so long as the templar knight-commander's stubbornness doesn't rear its ugly head too much, I think we can get the help we need."

Alistair smiled and surprised Catherine by walking up and enfolding her in a quick hug and thanking her emphatically. Catherine awkwardly patted his armored back and mumbled out a humble "you're welcome" before pulling away from the man and glancing towards the rest of her companions.

"Alright, no time to waste people, let's head out."

* * *

After having traveled as quickly as their tired legs would allow along the road leading north along Lake Calenhad's western shore, the Grey Wardens and their companions decided to make camp for the night as the sun set below the Frostback Mountains. They'd been fortunate to not come across any bandits or darkspawn along the way, but they found ample proof that someone was preying on travelers in this area, the evidence coming in the form of a decimated merchant caravan. And, judging by the amount of damage done to the merchants and their goods, it was likely the darkspawn. This left the whole group feeling uneasy as they settled in for the night.

Catherine was sitting in her tent, waiting for her shift on watch duty with Leliana. She knew that she should be attempting to get some rest while she could, but her head was so full of thoughts about the terror, excitement, and aggravation of the past two days that despite her aching limbs, sleep evaded her restless mind.

_I'm starting to think I should have just let Greagoir send me away to be locked up instead of going along with Duncan_, Catherine thought glumly, wallowing in her frustration at the cards life had dealt to her. _You know, dear Maker, you have a terrible sense of humor. First you make me a mage that desperately wants to get out of the tower that _your_ Chantry kept me locked up in, then you send along a chance to escape that prison only to lock me up in a whole new prison of world-shattering responsibilities. Thanks a bunch._

With a grunt of annoyance at her own depressing thoughts, Catherine reached into her pack in search of something to distract herself with. She groped around inside for a few moments before her hand closed around the handle of a mirror that had she'd found amongst the wreckage of the destroyed caravan earlier in the day. The mage pulled it out and examined the back of it in the light of the handful of candles she'd placed around her tent.

That the mirror had survived the destruction of the caravan undamaged was nothing short of a miracle, so Catherine felt that it must have some luck imbued into its beautiful golden frame, the back of which had pictures of deer and birds happily frolicking. Catherine had never been an overly superstitious type, but given the circumstances, she'd take what she could get, whatever it might be.

_Plus, you've been without a mirror for weeks now and your vanity is slowly eating away at you_, Catherine's honest, self-critical inner voice said slyly.

With a small chuckle Catherine turned the mirror over and looked into the reflected image of her face. While in the Circle Tower, Catherine had always prided herself on her looks, and had gone to rather great lengths to ensure she _always_ looked good. Arrogant as it might be, the mage had always felt that her beauty set her apart from a majority of the other female students. Now, with the self-critical part of her brain more in control than ever before, Catherine had to admit to herself that she was never really that much more beautiful than any of the other girls, and was most definitely _less_ attractive than quite a few.

_And now I'm less attractive than _all _of them_, Catherine thought with a soft snort as she took in her unkempt raven-black hair that was long overdue for a trimming and her dirt-smudged face. Looking down across the rest of her body she realized the rest of her was not much better off. Her body itself was actually in better shape than it had ever been, with all the traveling. She could feel tone in her muscles that had never been there before, but she hadn't lost her definitely feminine curves, curves that she was quite proud of. Her robes however, had never looked worse, stained with dirt, blood, and Maker only knows what else.

_Can't do much about the clothing right now, but as for my face and hair…_

Finding the distraction she'd been seeking, Catherine set about trying to fix herself up a bit.

First she pulled out her canteen and splashed some water onto her face, scrubbing at her smooth, pale skin firmly with a small piece of spare cloth until the dirt had been rinsed away. She looked back into the mirror and her full, pastel pink lips curved into a satisfied smile as she took in her soft, rounded, and now clean, face. She ran a finger along her high cheekbones, across her thin, slightly arched brow, and then down the concave bridge of her small, button nose. She was naturally fair-skinned, and being locked away in the Tower had always made getting a tan impossible, but since leaving with Duncan she'd noticed that she'd begun to get a bit of color that had never been there before. She rather liked that.

After giving herself a nod, Catherine reached into her pack and dug around until she found a pair of clippers and a comb, she then set about trimming her hair. In the Tower she'd always kept her hair well groomed, keeping it held back in an elegant bun so that her hair wouldn't get in the way while she was attempting to concentrate on her spells. When she wasn't practicing, however, she'd like to let a few stray locks bounce free so that she could flirtatiously flick them aside whenever she felt like trying to get something from someone.

Since leaving the Tower however, Catherine had found it rather difficult to maintain her usual level of grooming while constantly traveling with very few of the simple luxuries she'd taken for granted while in the Circle. Like for instance, a mirror.

_Or regular access to a bathtub_, Catherine thought with a scowl.

Once again holding the mirror up in front of her face, Catherine began using the small clippers to trim away bits of her ebony locks and using her comb to untangle the many knots that had formed, slowly bringing the tangled mess that was her hair back to order. Once the trimming and combing was done, Catherine began to tie her hair in her usual bun, high on the back of her head. Since the disaster at Ostagar, Catherine had never taken the time to do this after waking up in the mornings, as she did before joining the Grey Wardens. It really didn't take all that long, but time has seemed so critical to her since she'd set out with Alistair and Morrigan to somehow save the world that she'd never bothered with it.

_Or perhaps it was because there was no one I wanted to really look good for at first_, Catherine thought, smirking to herself as an image of Leliana suddenly burst into her thoughts.

A few minutes later, Catherine looked over her reflection once again, this time fully satisfied with what she saw, though not in the same way she would have been before Duncan recruited her. Before she would have been satisfied with looking her best for the sake of being better than others, but now she was simply proud that despite everything that was happening, despite all the responsibilities and worries that had been placed upon her shoulders, she could still maintain her beauty when she wanted to. Confidence replaced frustration as Catherine smiled into her own emerald eyes.

_It's amazing what a little bit of a make-over can do for your self-esteem_, Catherine thought with a smirk. _Here I am, only twenty years old, leading a ragtag group of people trying to somehow stop an entire Blight, living out of a tent, and I can still look damn good._

"Catherine?" Leliana's soft voice interrupted the Grey Warden's rather self-absorbed thoughts, causing her to jump slightly, "It's time for our watch."

"Oh, right," Catherine responded as she tucked away the mirror, clippers, and comb and grabbed her staff before pushing herself off the ground and out of the tent. Stepping out of the tent flap, Catherine suddenly found herself face to face with Leliana, with only a scant few inches separating them. The mage watched as Leliana quickly noticed her new hairstyle, and was amazed by how quickly the confidence she'd just built up transformed into awkward nervousness as she hoped the redhead would approve.

"I like what you've done with your hair," Leliana said after a moment, and Catherine exhaled the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.

_Maker, what is wrong with me? How does this woman have such an effect on me?_

"I, um, thanks," Catherine responded, feeling even more awkward as her brain seemed unable to think about anything other than how beautiful the other woman looked in the warm light of the campfire, "Uh, this is how I usually wore it back at the Circle Tower. I've kind of let it go wild since I left there, and I guess I just randomly decided to bring it back to order tonight for some reason."

Leliana let out a soft giggle (which nearly made Catherine swoon), then she suddenly grabbed the Warden's hand (which _did_ make Catherine swoon) and pulled the mage over to sit by the fire so that they were shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip with the fire in front of them. The rest of the companions had already disappeared into their respective tents for some much needed rest, leaving Catherine and the bard alone. This fact had Catherine's imagination running wild.

"I think that hairstyle suits you, stylish, but not too flashy. Not like the elaborate styles they have back in Orlais," Leliana said with a chuckle. Catherine fought to bring her attention back to the real Leliana from where it was trying to focus on a fantasy-Leliana that was wearing considerably less clothing—

_Gah! You're doing it again! Pay attention to her you idiot!_

"One year, feathers were all the rage, so Lady Elise decided to outdo everyone else by having live songbirds in her hair."

Catherine blinked as this odd piece of information finally broke through the haze of her overactive imagination.

"She had birds… _in_ her hair?" Catherine asked, dumbfounded.

"Yep, the poor little things were so scared, trapped in that big mess of hair. And let me tell you, little birdies have rather loose bowels when they're scared," Leliana giggled.

Catherine blinked a few more times as her brain registered the redhead's joke before suddenly breaking out in loud giggles.

"Shh!" the bard tried to hush the mage through her own giggles, "You'll wake everyone up!"

"S-sorry," Catherine said breathlessly as she managed to stifle her laughing, "That was just an interesting mental image you gave me there."

"I guarantee the mental image isn't half asinteresting as the _real_ image was," Leliana grinned over at the mage, who turned her head to meet the redhead's gaze. The two then sat like that for a short while, simply smiling at each other, the air around them silent save for the crackling of the campfire, the whisper of the wind, and the faint sound of snoring issuing from the direction of Alistair's tent.

"I feel so comfortable with you, like I can say anything to you and you wouldn't judge me," Leliana eventually said softly. Catherine grinned in response.

"Oh, I'm judging you alright," Catherine said, "I just keep it to myself until I can gossip about you behind your back with Sten."

"See! It's so much fun to have a conversation with you!" Leliana said as she giggled some more. Catherine was quickly realizing that the redhead had the cutest laugh, and she silently vowed to make the bard laugh as much as she possibly could. Catherine was so caught up in making that vow that she almost didn't notice as Leliana rested her head against the mage's shoulder, "I enjoy your company so very much."

Suddenly Catherine found her confidence charging back up from where her nervousness had buried it. Perhaps it was the way the conversation seemed to be going so great that inspired the confidence, or perhaps it was the feeling of the bard's silky red hair barely tickling against her cheek. Or maybe she was just slightly delirious from lack of sleep. Whatever it was, something gave the Grey Warden the sudden courage to ask the question that had been haunting her mind.

"Do you often enjoy the company of other women?" Catherine asked in a playful tone she wasn't even aware was in her repertoire of tones, a tone that she hoped suggested all the implications she wanted it to express.

"And what would you do if I said that I do? Very much so in fact?" Leliana replied without hesitation, her tone equally playful as she shifted her body to press against Catherine a little bit more.

_Number one on the list would probably be to jump up and dance around in joy, I think_, Catherine thought as her lips curved into a huge grin, _Then again, I think I much prefer the current situation_.

"I dunno," Catherine continued the banter, trying to keep her voice from giving away too much of how relieved and excited she felt, "Maybe giggle a little bit, try to hide how much my cheeks are blushing and then flash you a shy little smile?"

Leliana lifted her head just slightly off of Catherine's shoulder so that she could turn to look at the side of the mage's face. Catherine fought to keep from shivering as she felt the other woman's warm breath against her cheek.

"My, you _are_ blushing!" Leliana whispered into Catherine's ear, sending a pleasurable shudder down the mage's spine despite her best efforts at self-control.

_Oh no you don't you little minx. I, Catherine Amell, will _not_ be the seducee!_

"You should save the shy smile for when I'm not expecting it though," the redhead shifted so that her lips were just shy of making contact with Catherine's ear before continuing huskily, "_Surprise_ me."

_However, I've been wrong before_.

Catherine swallowed past the lump that had formed in her throat as she realized how entirely out-classed she was in terms of seduction when compared to the temptress that was leaning against her. Catherine was still working through the nearly overwhelming desire that clouded her brain to try and think of some way to turn the tables on the redhead when the other woman suddenly stood up. Catherine just blinked up at her questioningly, missing the warmth of Leliana's body pressed against her despite the fact that she was sitting a bit too close to the fire anyways.

"Can't get too comfortable," Leliana answered Catherine's unspoken question with a teasing grin that made it obvious that she knew exactly what she was doing to the younger woman, "Don't want to fall asleep on my watch, do I? Especially not while I'm sitting next to our group's leader! I think I'll take a quick walk around the camp."

With a final wink and a small giggle, the redhead flounced away, leaving Catherine to stew in her desires.

_I… That was… She is… Evil!_ Catherine thought as she watched the bard wander off. _So why does that make me want her so much more?_


	5. A Circle in Ruins

**AN: Well, again, sorry about how long it took to get this chapter out, though I think you can all forgive me for being a bit side-tracked by the release of Dragon Age 2 :P Now that I've beaten it however, I'm feeling very creative, and while most of the ideas bouncing around in my head now involve Merrill and Isabela, I still fully intend to finish this story eventually! Big thank yous to anyone and everyone that has read, reviewed, and/or favorited this, and a big super-special thank you to Asha'man X, who has given me very wonderful reviews on every chapter! Now, without further ado, chapter five!**

* * *

Looking out across Lake Calenhad at the Circle Tower, Catherine was torn between groaning and chuckling as she considered the irony of her current situation.

_I joined the Grey Wardens to get out of the Tower and now one of the first things I have to do as a Warden is come back to this damned place to ask for help_, Catherine thought as she settled on groaning. _Once again, I'm overwhelmed by your hilarity, Maker._

"You don't seem very happy to be _home_," Morrigan said from beside Catherine, smirking. The mage turned to glare at the witch.

"It's not my home," Catherine grumbled in response, "Let's just hurry up and get this over with. The sooner we're away from here, the better."

Morrigan snickered as Catherine let out another huff of frustration and turned to motion the rest of her companions forward. However, she noticed that someone was missing.

"Where's Sten?" the Warden asked, looking at each of the rest of the group in turn, who all glanced around and shrugged, "Damnit, he's the biggest, most conspicuous member of our little party, how did we lose him? Izzy, find Sten!"

The mabari barked and began sniffing the ground, immediately setting off towards the edge of the woods off to the side of the road, the rest of the group following close behind. Izzy led them a short ways into the woods to a small clearing where they found Sten standing over a ragged looking man, who sat on the ground in front of the qunari with a look of terror on his face.

"I swear, I didn't find no sword!" the man cried pleadingly, but Sten didn't seem too inclined to grant any leniency as he raised his plate-booted foot and pressed it against the man's chest, pushing him down against the ground.

"Sten!" Catherine yelled out, "What in the name of the Maker are you doing?"

Sten looked over his shoulder, not removing his foot from the man's chest.

"This man may know where my _Asala_ is," Sten said simply, and then began to press down on the man once more.

"Please, help me! I don't know anything!" the man begged as he looked over at Catherine.

"Whoa whoa, hold on a minute!" Alistair said, stepping forward with his hands held out in a placating gesture, "Why don't you take a second and explain just what an uh… _Asala_ is, and why this guy might know where it is? And while you're doing that, how about you stop crushing the life out of him for a minute?"

Sten looked at Alistair for a moment, considering, and then nodded. His boot remained on the man's chest, but he appeared to have stopped pressing down.

"_Asala_ means soul," Sten said, making Alistair and Catherine share a confused look. Before they could ask if Sten was feeling alright, the qunari continued, "It is also my sword, the sword that was made for me. Without that sword, I can never return to my people."

"And why do you think this guy knows where your sword is?" Catherine inquired, quite curious about what was happening, in large part due to the fact that Sten had never spoken this much before.

Sten began to explain how he'd led a group of qunari warriors into Ferelden to investigate the Blight. While he and his warriors had been camped in the very spot the group now stood, they'd been attacked and overwhelmed by darkspawn. The other qunari had been killed, but Sten had only been severely wounded, and was found and revived by some farmers. They were the same farmers that Sten was arrested for murdering, for when he woke up without his sword, he panicked and went into a mindless rage. According to Sten, a qunari warrior's sword was part of that soldier's very identity, and without the sword his people would never accept him back.

As Sten told this story to the group, the ragged man simply looked between Sten and the rest of the group, looking terrified and confused as to why no one had bothered to get the giant man's foot off of him yet.

"This man is a scavenger, he may have found my sword amongst what remains of our camp," Sten finished, once again glaring down at the man, who shook his head quickly.

"I told you, I didn't find a sword!" the scavenger cried, "I didn't find _anything_ of worth here! I was cheated by the guy who sold me the rights to this spot!"

The man blinked and his eyes widened even further as the last sentence escaped his lips.

"And who did you buy the rights from?" Catherine said as she stepped up to stand next to Sten, joining the giant warrior in glaring down at the scavenger.

"I… I… I don't remember his name," the man tried to lie, but Sten's boot pressing down on his chest quickly convinced him to give up the attempt, "His name was Faryn! He usually sells his wares outside the gates of Orzammar! Please, that's all I know! Don't kill me!"

"Alright Sten, let him go. We have to head to Orzammar eventually anyway, we'll look for this Faryn guy when we head there," Catherine said, looking down with a very pointed expression at the scavenger, who had quickly startled scrambling away from the qunari when the boot was lifted from his chest, "And if we don't find him, we'll just have to come find our new friend here and get more information out of him. So you'd better hope the information you gave us was very accurate. Get my meaning?"

"Everything I said is true, I swear!" the man said desperately as he pushed himself off the ground, "Can I leave now?"

Catherine nodded and the scavenger took off at a run without hesitation.

"Should've just let Sten crush the filth," Morrigan said as she watched the fleeing man.

"If Faryn isn't where that guy said he should be, next time I'll let Sten do whatever he wants," Catherine smirked and patted Sten on his armored shoulder, "Don't worry big guy, we'll find your sword."

"Thank you," Sten said, looking down at Catherine with what might be surprise on his face, "I didn't expect such honor from you."

Catherine blinked, wondering if that was a compliment or an insult. She then shrugged and waved her hand back towards the shore of Lake Calenhad.

"Now, unless anyone else needs to go _soul-_searching…?" Catherine snickered at her own joke and smiled brightly when she heard the wonderful sound of Leliana's giggle. Morrigan just rolled her eyes and Alistair smiled, while Sten gave her his usual lack of expression and Izzy let out a happy bark, "Alright then, let's head to prison—er, I mean, the Tower."

As they moved back towards the road, Catherine threw a wink towards Leliana, who winked right back.

* * *

"I told you, I have strict orders to not let anyone across to the Tower."

Catherine heaved out a long sigh as she glared at the templar that had apparently taken over control of the ferry that was the only access to the Circle Tower, since the people who built the place had decided to put it on an island a few hundred yards away from the shore.

"And I told _you_ that not only am I a mage that just left this place only a few weeks ago, who I'm sure you remember seeing at one point, because I remember seeing you, _Carroll_, but I am also a Grey Warden and I am here on very important business," Catherine stated firmly, resisting the urge to blast the templar off the dock and into the water behind him.

_I sincerely doubt that templars float all that well…_

"Never seen you in my life," Carroll said stubbornly, arms crossed, "And how can I know that you're really a Grey Warden?"

Catherine sighed again and reached into her pack, pulling out the ancient treaties that bore the Grey Warden seal.

"Here, these are Grey Warden treaties," Catherine said as she held the documents in front of Carroll's face, "This one here says that the Circle has to aid us against a Blight. And in case you've been living under a rock, there is currently a Blight happening right now. So, one way or another, we're getting into that tower."

"Hah! Grey Warden treaties eh?" Carroll laughed derisively, "Those are good, but I've got better. I've got some documents that prove I'm the queen of Antiva!"

"Well, your highness, I hope you can swim _real_ well," Catherine, losing her patience, turned to her qunari companion, "Sten, throw him in the lake please."

"What? You can't threaten me!" Carroll said, his eyes going wide as Sten stepped forward, "My commander will have your head!"

"We'll just tell Greagoir that you tripped and fell in your hurry to help us get across the lake," Catherine said, smiling sweetly, "After all, we are here on _very_ important business. I'm sure Greagoir would be glad to hear that you weren't giving such important guests as a couple of Grey Wardens any trouble."

"Alright, alright, I'll take you across. Settle down!" Carroll said, holding his hands out in front of him, glancing between Catherine and the qunari that was towering over him.

"See, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Catherine asked as she stepped past the templar and took a seat on the boat, "And this way, no one has to drown. A win-win."

Carroll just glared in response as he went about undocking the ferry.

* * *

As soon as she stepped through the large, solid metal doors that led into the Tower, Catherine knew that she was only going to end up more frustrated. The entrance hall was full of templars, some of whom were gathered around the un-helmeted figure that Catherine recognized as Knight-Commander Greagoir, who appeared to be giving instructions. The rest of the templars were standing with their weapons out in front of the doors that led further into the Tower or sitting alongside one of the walls either resting or recovering from a variety of wounds.

"Holy Maker," Catherine whispered, glancing around trying to make sense of the scene before her. _Can't anything ever be simple?_

As she and her companions filed into the room, Greagoir looked up and blinked, recognizing Catherine immediately. He gave a few more orders to his fellow templars and then walked up to the newcomers.

"You are the last person I expected to see here, Amell," Greagoir said in a rather unfriendly tone. He gave the other members of the group a cursory glance, except for Morrigan, who he glared at for a few moments before sighing and turning back to Catherine, "And you've brought such an interesting group of friends. May I ask what you're doing here? Don't you have a Blight you're supposed to be fighting?"

"That's why I'm here," Catherine said, her own voice equally frosty, "We Wardens took considerable casualties at Ostagar. And by considerable, I mean near-total. Me and Alistair here—" she pointed her thumb over her shoulder at her fellow Grey Warden, "—are the last two in Ferelden. So we need help, and we have treaties that compel the Circle, among others, to do just that."

"Well, as you might've gathered," Greagoir waved his hand vaguely at the room around him, "the Circle is in no condition to be helping anyone."

"Mind telling me what's going on?"

Greagoir sighed and turned to glare at the doors leading further into the Tower.

"The Tower has been overrun with abominations," the knight-commander said grimly, "We're not sure how it started, it all happened too fast for us to even mount any sort of defense. All I could do was grab all the templars that were nearby to barricade that door to keep them from escaping. Whatever happens, I can't allow any of those monsters to get out of here. That's why I've sent a messenger to Denerim for reinforcements and the Rite of Annulment."

Catherine listened to Greagoir, her heart sinking into her stomach first at hearing about the abominations and then even further when Greagoir mentioned the Rite of Annulment. The Rite was an order from Ferelden's Grand Cleric that would allow the templars to completely purge the Circle.

"That's it? You're just going to kill everyone?" Catherine asked, her shocked brain having troubling registering everything.

"Everyone inside is either dead or an abomination."

"If you didn't have time to do anything but make a break for the exit, how can you know that for sure?" Catherine cried out angrily, taking a step towards the templar. She was restrained from doing anything overly foolish by the hands that took hold of her shoulders, one a soft touch that she knew was Leliana, the other an armored hand that she guessed was Alistair. Greagoir just stood where he was, glaring at her.

"The abominations must have overrun any survivors hours ago," the templar stated flatly, "And I barely have enough manpower to hold these doors, let alone try to mount any rescue attempts."

Catherine stood completely still for a moment, looking down at her feet as she considered her options.

_There has to be some mages still alive in there. I can't believe that _everyone_ is dead._

The mage turned and looked first over her left shoulder at Leliana, who nodded and gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze, and then she looked over her right shoulder at Alistair, who nodded as well. She also caught Morrigan sighing as she, like Leliana and Alistair, realized what Catherine was probably going to do.

"We'll go in, look for survivors and kill as many of the abominations as we can," Catherine said suddenly, making Greagoir raise his eyebrows in surprise, "Even if we… fail, you'll be no worse off than you are right now, and if we succeed then we save some mages. Mages that will be needed if we want to have any chance of stopping the Blight."

Greagoir narrowed his eyes in thought, considering what she said. After a few moments and a couple glances over his shoulder at the barricade, Greagoir met Catherine's eyes.

"I can't risk opening those doors for anything on the other side unless I know for certain that the situation is contained," Greagoir said, "And I'll only believe that if Irving himself tells me."

"So if we go in there, you won't let us back out unless Irving survived?" Catherine asked, once again glaring at the man she'd long considered one of her least favorite people in the world. Greagoir simply nodded in response. The mage sighed, "Fine, we'll do it, on one condition. Regardless of what happens in there, we leave this Tower with a promise of help against the Blight."

"Very well," Greagoir accepted the terms, and then added, "Also, if it makes you feel better about your odds of finding Irving, if anyone could survive in there, it's him. I'm sure you know as well as I how powerful and intelligent the man is."

Catherine nodded as Greagoir turned and walked towards the templars guarding the door. The mage then spun and gave a small smile to her companions.

"Yes, I know I'm insane for doing this," Catherine said with a grin, "I won't force any of you to come with me. This is probably going to make our little battle at Redcliffe look like a nice evening stroll."

"I'm coming with you," Leliana said immediately, smirking, "Someone has to keep you alive with some well-timed arrows."

"And you know that I'm coming with you. We Wardens stick together. Plus, I can't let you have _all_ the glory, since you are the junior Warden here," Alistair said with a laugh. Catherine snickered and patted the blonde-haired man's arm appreciatively.

"As foolish as this whole thing is, you and the idiot _are_ needed to stop the Blight, and you'll excuse me if I don't entirely trust the Chantry-wench to keep you two alive by herself," Morrigan scoffed, throwing her usual glare towards Leliana, who glared right back.

"I agreed to join you to seek redemption," Sten said simply, "I have not yet achieved that, and so I shall continue to follow you."

"And I suppose you're sticking with me too, huh boy?" Catherine asked as she patted Izzy's head. The mabari licked her hand and whuffed what the mage assumed to be a yes, "Alright then, looks like they're ready to open the door. Let's go."

The companions passed the waiting templars, most of whom simply shook their heads at the group's apparent insanity, and then stepped through the open door that led further into the Tower. The door was quickly closed behind them with an ominous _clunk_.

The first thing they saw in the hallway they'd entered was a pile of three bodies, one a templar that had been impaled with something, the other two completely burnt into anonymity. The sight sent a chill down Catherine's spine, and the smell nearly made her retch.

"That… doesn't seem like a good omen," Alistair said, scowling down at the corpses.

"Well, at least these corpses aren't trying to eat us," Catherine joked in an attempt to lighten the mood, an attempt that completely failed as not even Leliana gave her a token laugh. Her companions just gave her odd looks and then continued down the hallway, leaving Catherine to sigh and jog to catch back up.

The companions went through the next door and found themselves in a larger corridor. Along the right were two doors that Catherine knew led into the apprentice dorms, where she had slept for a majority of her life. The mage nodded at the nearest door and Alistair began to slowly open it, cracking it just enough to peak his head in for a moment before pulling the door open fully and stepping into the dorms cautiously.

As the rest of the group made sure the room was clear of any hidden monsters, Catherine made her way to her old bunk. Staring down at the neatly made bed, which apparently hadn't been given to another apprentice yet, the mage felt a swirl of conflicting emotions within her mind. On one hand the bed was a symbol of the confinement she'd had to live through for so many years, but on the other it was also a reminder of simpler times.

_I may not have been truly free, but at least when I was sleeping here I didn't have to worry about eventually facing down an Archdemon_, Catherine let out a sigh and turned away from the bed, only to find Leliana standing there, looking concerned.

"This can't be easy for you," Leliana began, but Catherine just smiled and reached out to give Leliana's arm a gentle squeeze.

"No, it isn't," the mage said softly, before shooting the bard one of her grins, "But we need to stay focused. Come on, there's abominations that need killing."

With that room secure, the party went back out and continued down to the door at the end of the hallway. Once again, Alistair took point and peaked through the door. The former templar quickly pulled the door open as he turned to smile at Catherine, who peered over his shoulder and let out a sigh of relief. Inside the next room were a dozen or so mages, most of them children, sitting or standing in a rough circle in the middle of the room.

Before any of the mages even noticed the Wardens however, a strange growling sound emanated from the purple magical-barrier that blocked the door leading further into the tower. A moment later a fire seemed to erupt from the ground directly in front of the barrier, the flames flickering upward and dancing about each other until they began to take shape into… something.

_Great, more demons._

The rage demon had only a few moments to fully come into existence before a grey-haired female mage wearing the robes of a senior enchanter stepped up and began gathering energy about her. The demon charged forward but didn't even make it halfway toward the gathered mages before the elder mage let loose a torrent of energy, blasting away the fiery monster like a powerful gust of wind blowing out a candle. The enchanter immediately turned and raised her staff towards the Wardens and their companions.

"Stop right there! I'll… wait, you!" the mage, who Catherine now recognized as being Wynne, said as she appraised the group, "What are you doing here? I thought you'd died at Ostagar!"

Wynne was one of the most senior members of the Ferelden Circle of Magi, she was a renowned spirit healer and highly regarded among the Circle as being nearly as wise, intelligent, and powerful as Irving himself. She had also been at Ostagar, where she had even spoken to Catherine shortly before that fateful battle.

"The darkspawn did their damned best," Catherine smirked, "But what I lack in skill I make up with sheer dumb luck."

Wynne just raised her eyebrows and shook her head.

"Why are you here?" Wynne asked, her eyes narrowing, "The templars abandoned us to our fate, the only reason they would open those doors now would be to invoke the Rite of Annulment. Is that why you are here?"

"In a manner of speaking," Catherine responded, though she immediately wished she'd phrased it differently as Wynne and the other adult mages raised their staffs threateningly. Catherine threw up her hands and quickly explained how she'd convinced Greagoir to allow her to enter the tower and how she had to find Irving to convince the knight-commander that the situation was under control, "Please tell me that Irving isn't already dead."

"I do not know," Wynne frowned, her face drawn with fatigue and sadness, "I have not seen him since before Uldred started all this madness."

"Wait, Uldred caused this?" Catherine exclaimed, anger boiling in her gut. She had never liked Uldred much, but now that he was a convenient focus for all her anger regarding the situation, she found that she hated the man, "How? What happened here?"

Wynne explained how Uldred had come back from Ostagar and started a revolt to take over the Circle and free the mages from the templars' authority. However, it had all apparently gotten out of control and Wynne wasn't even certain what had happened to Uldred, as she only had time to gather the children and the few mages she could find and then erect the barrier that kept the abominations and demons at bay.

"If you are here to save the Circle, then please let me help you," Wynne said, "I will lower the barrier and we can go through and clear out every abomination we find along the way. You are strong, and by the looks of them, so are your friends. Together, we can make the Tower safe again."

As Catherine considered this, Morrigan stepped up beside her.

"Are we really going to assist this preachy schoolmistress?" Morrigan said haughtily, not bothering to lower her voice, "To rescue these pathetic Chantry cattle? They allow themselves to be corralled and controlled, and now that their masters have sentenced them to death, I say let them have it, it would be doing them a favor."

"'Pathetic Chantry cattle'?" Catherine wheeled on Morrigan, her eyes flashing dangerously as her voice rose in volume until she was all but shouting into the witch's face "I was… no, I _am_ one of them, just like you could have been if things were different. You think it's as simple as that? You think we would let the templars lord their authority over us if we had any choice? Of course we wouldn't! But if we don't, then we die. And not a single damned person in Thedas is going to care if they slaughter us, because they can just say it was for the good of everyone that our 'evil' was eliminated!"

Morrigan blinked a few times, taken aback by the sudden outburst so entirely that she wasn't even able to come up with a scathing response.

"No, I don't care if I'm not technically part of the Circle anymore," Catherine continued after taking a deep breath to calm herself, her voice now much calmer and quieter, "I'm still a mage, and as far as I'm concerned, it's us mages against the templars, and I'm sure as flames not going to help the templars do their dirty work by killing my own people. And frankly, I can't believe you'd even consider doing just that."

Catherine spun away from Morrigan without giving the other woman a chance to respond and looked to Wynne.

"Wynne, lower the barrier," Catherine said firmly, "We're going in there. We're going to kill every last one of those monsters, find Irving, save the Circle, and, if he's still alive, make Uldred pay for doing this to his own. Let's go."


	6. Dreams, Nightmares, and Going it Alone

**AN: Well, I'd say sorry for the delay on this update, but I think anyone that has kept up with this story is probably used to how long it can take me to get a chapter out. This one is a bit shorter than most of my others, but I think it works. Thanks again to my reviewers, favorite'ers, and anyone that takes the time to read this! For the most part I just write for the sake of writing, but I do very much like that others can get some enjoyment from reading what I have written. Also, a small warning, there's a bit of femslash sexual-ness in this one (and a dropping of the f-bomb later too *GASP* :P), but that's why I gave this an "M" rating. ****As always, reviews will make me feel warm and fuzzy inside! ****Enjoy!**

With a long yawn, Catherine sat up in her bed and stretched, luxuriating in the early morning rays of sunlight that shone through the windows of her bedroom.

_My... bedroom?_ Catherine thought, bemused, as she looked at the room around her, suddenly feeling very disoriented. The room seemed both perfectly familiar and completely strange, the contradiction leaving the barely-awake mage confused like she never had been before. The room itself was large and elegantly decorated in a way that fit her tastes so perfectly that Catherine felt as if she had been the one to decorate it, even though try as she might, she could not recall ever doing so. Outside, Catherine could see a beautiful landscape of rolling hills and forests not dissimilar to those she'd traveled through around Lothering.

As Catherine continued attempting to sort out the confusing thoughts swirling about her mind, she suddenly realized she was not alone on the bed as she felt movement next to her. Glancing down, the mage saw a mass of fiery red hair on the pillow next to her own, and finally an absolute certainty broke through to the surface of her mind: that was Leliana.

Leliana continued to stir as Catherine stared down at her dumbly until the redhead sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and turning to give the mage a sleepy smile. Catherine automatically returned the smile, though her face froze as the blanket fell from Leliana's chest, exposing the fact that the woman was quite nude. It was then that Catherine's befuddled mind finally registered that she too was without any clothing.

_I'm naked. She's naked. In bed. Together, _Catherine thought, _I'd be thanking the Maker for this if only I could remember how I got-_

Her thoughts were cut off as Leliana leaned over and casually placed a quick kiss upon the Warden's lips.

"Good morning, Love," Leliana said cheerily, "Did you sleep well?"

"I, uh, yeah," Catherine blinked, reaching up to run a finger across her own lips, "You... kissed me."

Leliana's brow furrowed slightly, and she let out a soft giggle.

"Yes, I did. I happen to like kissing you very much, which is probably why I do it so often!" the redhead smirked and leaned in once again, placing a more lingering kiss upon Catherine's lips, who was too stunned to respond. Leliana drew back, looking bemused once again, and reached up to place a hand against the mage's forehead, "Are you feeling alright, dear?"

When Leliana's soft, warm hand pressed to her forehead, Catherine found that suddenly she didn't care so much that she wasn't entirely sure about how she'd gotten here or even where "here" was.

_And why should I care when the most beautiful woman in the world is naked in bed with me?_

With a new found sense of determination, the mage leaned into Leliana, kissing her passionately as Catherine gently pushed her lover back down into the bed, rolling halfway atop the other woman's body. Both women let out gentle moans as the warm, soft skin of two bodies slid against each other. Catherine was content to simply enjoy the taste of Leliana's lips and tongue and the wonderful sensation of the bard's breasts pressing against her own slightly smaller pair, but the other woman apparently was not. With a soft growl that sent a shudder of pleasure down Catherine's spine, Leliana rolled them both over. The bard's long, beautiful legs going to either side of the mage's hips, straddling the younger woman with one arm holding her top half just above Catherine's and the other arm working its way down between the two, getting closer and closer to the center of the lust-ridden Warden's desires.

"Wait!" Catherine suddenly breathed out, both proud of herself for having enough willpower to say something, and angry at herself for doing just that, "This is all so fast, I... I want to savor this, our first time..."

Looking confused once more, Leliana froze, tilting her head to the side as she examined the mage below her.

"This isn't our first time, dearest one," Leliana said, looking a little hurt, "Don't you remember? We've done this more times than I can count since you told me you loved me right after defeating the Archdemon. Why, that must have been almost two years ago now."

As the other woman spoke, Catherine _could_ suddenly see images that seemed to fit what the bard was saying, but they were hazy and felt much as the room around her felt: familiar, but at the same time, entirely alien. Almost as if it wasn't... _real._

_Think Catherine, _the mage thought, trying to push aside the muddled images of a dead Archdemon and cheering crowds that seemed only to confuse her further, _What is the last thing I can remember that doesn't feel like that?_

Catherine thought back to when her quest to stop the Blight began. She remembered going through Lothering with a comforting certainty, then thoughts of Redcliffe brought forth clear memories. After Redcliffe she remembered that her and her companions had gone to the Circle Tower-

"Come on, Love," Leliana's voice broke through her musing, "Let's keep going, then I'll make you a nice breakfast."

For a few moments, as the redhead leaned down to kiss her once again, Catherine considered giving in. What harm could come from enjoying herself with the woman she loved? Besides, she could think about all those depressing memories later. But, a part of Catherine's mind registered, the memories that had been clear and distinct moments ago were suddenly becoming distant and hazy.

_No!_ Catherine pushed Leliana away and rolled out from beneath the other woman, _Something is very wrong here._

"What is wrong with you this morning?" Leliana asked, sounding hurt and angry as she stood up from the bed, her red eyes glaring into Catherine. "Don't you want me?"

_Red eyes? What in the Maker is going on here? That is _not_ Leliana! _Catherine suddenly felt a bit panicked as the not-Leliana began stalking towards her, the mage retreating backwards until her back was against the wall, _Think damnit! What is the last thing you can remember?_ _We got to the Circle Tower and found that it had been overrun with abominations, we went inside and started fighting our way through it. We went into a big, circular room and found an abomination. He told us to sleep, I tried to fight it, but then... Oh shit! I'm in the Fade!_

With this sudden realization, the world around her began to shimmer and the room appeared to dissolve until the mage found herself standing in the surreal world of the Fade, once again wearing her robes and with her staff in hand.

"We could have been so happy," the image of Leliana had remained in front of Catherine, though her voice suddenly had a strange modulation to it, "Why did you have to go and ruin it?"

"Because it's not real!" Catherine yelled out, "You're not Leliana! I don't want a fake, I want the real thing! And no demon is going to keep me from her!"

Just like the room had, the figure standing in front of the mage began to shimmer, though instead of dissolving, it glowed and shifted until Leliana had been replaced with a humanoid figure that Catherine knew to be a desire demon.

"Foolish mortal," spat the demon before it suddenly sprang forward, lashing out with a whip-like weapon. Catherine brought her staff up and summoned a telekinetic barrier to reflect the strike. She then reached into the swirling power of the Fade that surrounded her and drew power from it, focusing it into a powerful blast of arcane energy that she unleashed upon the demon, forcing it back a few steps. Catherine followed up with another spell, and then another, releasing the anger, frustration, and fear that had built up inside of her because of the demon's ruse. With one final blast of entropic energy, the demon fell, its body dissipating into the energy currents that flowed through the Fade.

Taking in a few deep breaths of what she knew wasn't really air, Catherine attempted to settle her nerves. She looked around, noticing that she was on a rocky island very similar to the one she had been on during her Harrowing. Other islands could be seen in the murky grey-green sky around her and the ever-present Black City could be seen in the distance.

Looking back to her surroundings, Catherine suddenly noticed a small black pedestal a few yards in front of her that had not been there before. The mage moved forward, cautiously approaching the object. On the top surface of it she saw a number of runes arrayed in a circular pattern, each connected to the others around it with a line. Only one of the runes was glowing when Catherine got to the pedestal, but as she watched, the line that connected that rune to the only other rune near it began to glow as well, and when the light reached the next character, it too shone with the strange light. Holding her finger over the newly-glowing shape, Catherine could feel magical energy pulsing from it.

"Well, I don't think things could get much worse right now," Catherine pondered aloud as she stared down at the pedestal, "I'm trapped and alone in the Fade with no idea where to go or what to do. Might as well touch the strange little magical rune and see what happens."

With a groan and a shrug, Catherine closed her eyes and pressed her finger down. There was a sudden surge of energy around the mage and she felt like she was moving for only a split second, then it was over. Catherine peeked one eye open, saw that she was on a new island, one that had a glowing purple portal of some kind on it, and smiled.

"Well, Maker only knows if I'm going the right way, or if there is even a right way _to _go, but to the Void with it, onwards!"

* * *

Catherine wasn't really sure how long she'd been wandering through the Fade now, time seemed to work differently in the world of dreams. Perhaps it had been only a few hours, perhaps it had been a few days. All Catherine knew was that she was lonely and more than a little scared.

At first, the mage had been uncertain whether or not she'd be able to make it through the nightmare she'd found herself in. She knew, without being overconfident, that she was quite powerful when it came to magic and that she had been a force to be reckoned with in the combat she'd so far seen on her journey. But up until now, she had never fought alone, she had always had Alistair there to keep the enemies from charging her, and Leliana and Izzy were always there to catch anyone that managed to somehow make it past the former templar. Fighting without any backup, the mage quickly learned, was a whole new experience.

But she had so far survived all demons, spirits, darkspawn, burning templars, crazed mages, and all the other surreal enemies the Fade had thrown at her. She'd also learned how to shapeshift into a mouse, a burning man, an arcane spirit, and a golem, shapes that had come in very handy both in navigating the labyrinthine of floating islands and in fighting the spirits that blocked her path at every turn. With every battle won and every obstacle traversed, Catherine's confidence in herself and her abilities grew like it never had before.

Shaking herself from her reverie, Catherine pushed herself up off the ground where she had been taking a breather. The mage had just defeated the last of the demons that controlled the circle of islands that protected the central one, where the sloth demon that ruled this part of the Fade sat waiting, the demon responsible for trapping Catherine and her companions. The demon that Catherine was going to enjoy killing for putting her in this nightmarish situation.

Looking down at the Fade pedestal in front of her, identical to the one she'd used to travel from the first island to the second, Catherine could see that every rune on it was now glowing. So far, she'd stuck to the inner circle of islands, but with the last of them secured, she looked at the outer circle of smaller runes. She had yet to go to one of them.

_Maker, I hope the others are on one of those_, Catherine thought, _I could really use some company right about now_. _Here goes nothing._

The mage pushed her finger down on one of the outer runess and, as happened when she used the pedestals before, the world swirled about her for a moment, turning into an indistinct blur before once again settling into a new island, where Catherine found herself standing in front of a very familiar looking chantry.

"Oh, great, even in the Fade I have to deal with the Chantry," Catherine grumbled to herself, "As if the burning templars weren't bad enough."

Sighing, Catherine walked forward, staff in hand and eyes alert for enemies, and pushed open the large doors leading into the building. Inside, she found what appeared to be a perfectly normal chantry. A few Sisters were standing about, and though Catherine expected them to attack, they simply smiled at the mage and welcomed her.

Warily, Catherine moved forward through the pews. As she approached the back of the building the mage spotted something that nearly made her heart leap from her chest in joy: Leliana, wearing Chantry robes and kneeling in front of the altar with what Catherine recognized as Lothering's Revered Mother standing beside her, smiling down at the praying redhead.

_Don't get too excited, this could be another demon in disguise_, Catherine warned herself as she approached the two women.

"Leliana?" Catherine called out carefully.

The bard looked up and turned her head towards Catherine, though there was no sign of recognition in her bright blue eyes as she saw the mage.

"I'm sorry, have we met before?" Leliana asked, and Catherine couldn't help the pain in her gut she felt when the woman she had grown so close to so quickly looked at her as if she was a stranger.

"Of course we have!" Catherine exclaimed, "It's me, it's Catherine!"

"I-I'm sorry, I don't recall ever seeing you before in my life," Leliana said, glancing up at the Revered Mother.

"Please, leave the poor girl to her prayers," the Revered Mother placed a hand upon the bard's shoulder, squeezing it gently, "She has been through so much, she deserves her peace."

Catherine reached out with her will towards the other two women. From Leliana she felt nothing out of the ordinary, but from the Revered Mother she instantly felt an energy that she'd learned during her recent escapades could only come from a demon.

"Take your hand off of her, demon!" Catherine growled, raising her staff, though she quickly lowered it again as Leliana placed herself between the mage and her target.

"How dare you say such a thing to the Revered Mother!" Leliana cried out, "You should leave at once!"

"Leliana, this isn't real!" Catherine said as she stared into the bard's eyes, silently begging the redhead to fully listen to her words, "Think hard about your memories of Lothering. What's the last thing you can remember? Do you remember your vision? Do you remember the miracle of that rose bush?"

"I... wait, how do you know about my vision?" Leliana blinked, glancing between the Revered Mother and Catherine, confusion written across her face.

"I told you dear, it was just a dream," the elder woman said softly, "The Maker cannot speak to you."

"He can and he did!" Catherine said firmly, "The Maker told you to come with me, don't you remember? He told you to come with me to help me stop the Blight. I can't do that without you Leli, please, you have to trust me!"

"I-I... I do trust you," Leliana said as she stared into Catherine's eyes, "I don't really know why, but I do. Entirely. I will come with you."

Catherine let out a deep sigh of relief and smiled brightly at the bard, who gave her a small smile in return and went to move forward, but she was stopped suddenly when the Revered Mother grabbed her arm with unnatural strength and yanked her back.

"No!" the demon yelled, its voice now reverting back to its low, rumbling tone, "She is mine!"

"Fuck that!" Catherine yelled right back as she brought her staff up to fire off a small bolt of energy, catching the still-human-disguised demon in the shoulder, knocking it back against the altar and forcing it to release its hold on Leliana, who dove to the side as Catherine let loose a torrent of energy upon the demon, who was quickly reverting to its true form as a fiery rage demon. Before it could even fully take shape however, Catherine's spell shattered the demon, and the illusion of the chantry along with it, leaving Catherine and Leliana on a small island in the Fade.

Catherine immediately rushed over to help Leliana up, wrapping the other woman in a tight hug as soon as the bard was on her feet, the redhead eagerly returning the embrace.

"Oh thank the Maker you're alright," Catherine said as she clung to Leliana's warmth, "I was so worried I wasn't going to find you."

"But you did," Leliana responded, her voice shaking slightly and a shiver running down her body, "That was perhaps one of the scariest moments of my life, when the Revered Mother... changed like that. Thank you, so much, for saving me."

Leliana pulled her head back so that her face was just inches from Catherine's. As they had many times before, the two women comfortabely stared into each others eyes for a moment, but then suddenly it seemed as if Leliana was somehow fading away.

"Wait, where are you going? Don't leave!" the bard cried out, and though her face was still so close to the mage's, her voice seemed to be coming from a great distance. A moment later, where just a second before Catherine had felt the press of the other woman's body against hers, there was... nothing.

The mage just stood there for a moment, pondering her horrible luck.

"I hate this place, I really, really do."

* * *

Some time later (Catherine still hadn't the slightest idea how long she'd been trapped in the sloth demon's domain), the lonely Warden was once again standing on a small Fade island after having watched one of her companions disappearing to Maker-only-knows-where. This time it had been Morrigan, who Catherine had found in an illusion of the hut where Morrigan and her mother, Flemeth, had lived in down in the Korcari Wilds. The fake Flemeth had been acting as a caring, loving mother to her daughter, something that Catherine knew from Morrigan couldn't be further from the real Flemeth's character. So it was no surprise that Morrigan was not fooled by her dream, though it was a surprise that she would dream up a loving version of Flemeth, since according to Morrigan, she didn't _want_ to be coddled.

_Looks like the cold witch has a soft spot inside after all, I'll have to remember that_, Catherine thought with a small smirk. Though the smile disappeared quickly as the mage's thoughts returned to the task at hand. With Morrigan freed, Catherine had cleared the last of the outer circle of islands, each of which had been the dreams of one of her companions.

It had been difficult to free some of the others, like Alistair, who enjoyed his dream of a peaceful life with his sister and her family far too much to willingly let it go, or Sten, who had been content to sit in his dream with the soldiers he had lost to the darkspawn, even though he knew it was in fact not real. For others, like Morrigan, it had been quite easy. But in each dream Catherine couldn't help the guilt she felt, couldn't help but feel like she was seeing something she had no right to see. She knew she certainly wouldn't want someone else traipsing into one of her dreams.

_Oh well, it's not like I had much of a choice_, Catherine thought wryly, _It was that or let them rot in this place forever._

Shrugging aside those thoughts, Catherine moved to the nearby Fade pedestal and looked down at the center rune. She simply stared at it for a few moments before taking in a deep breath and pressing her finger against it. A moment later she found herself on a large, circular island at the center of which stood what appeared to be an arcane horror, though Catherine knew it had to be Sloth.

"What do we have here?" a gravely voice sounded out of the demon, "A rebellious minion? An escaped slave?"

It let out a laugh then that sent a shiver down Catherine's spine.

_What in the Void am I doing?_ Catherine thought, the confidence she'd built up fighting her way through the nightmares and dreams fading slightly as she realized she was now facing the ruler of this realm, _This things controls this place, this must be where it's at its most powerful. I can't take him alone!_

"My my, but you do have some gall," the demon continued, "But playtime is over, you all have to go back now."

_You all?_

"Oh, here I am," Alistair's voice suddenly sounded out from behind her, and Catherine had never been happier to hear it, "And there you are. You just disappeared."

Catherine turned to smile at him, and her smile only grew wider as one by one her companions began to appear. When Leliana popped into existence directly in front of Catherine, the mage had to fight the urge to grab the bard and kiss her senseless.

_There will be time for that later, _Catherine grinned towards the bard, who smiled right back, looking relieved to see Catherine again. Seeing everyone here made the mage feel actually happy for the first time in what felt like ages. No longer alone, she turned back to the sloth demon, still smiling.

"Hm, you were saying something about sending us back, right?" Catherine said mockingly, "Well, there's one problem with that, we don't really want to go back. So, I propose a deal. You demons like deals don't you? Well, consider this one. We kick your ass, you die, and we go back to our world and finish killing the rest of your demon buddies in the Tower. Sound good? Good!"

* * *

With a yawn and a stretch of her aching body, Catherine sat up off the cold stone floor, once again back in the mortal world. Around her, the rest of the group was stirring, one by one they each pushed themselves off the ground, standing in a semi-circle around the dead body of the abomination that had contained Sloth. Catherine gave the grotesque corpse a firm kick.

"I hope your nap is about as satisfying as mine was, you bloody demon," the mage turned back towards her companions, "Come on, I'm _really_ pissed at Uldred now, I want to go give the bastard a piece of my mind... and then kill him of course."


	7. How to Properly Motivate a Grey Warden

**AN: So, once again, my apologies for slow updating. My writing fire had died down quite a bit the past few months for some reason, but I have not and will not be giving up on this story! Anyways, this is a very, very short chapter, more an interlude really, and it is almost entirely made of fluff, because I didn't want all this fluffy goodness to be tarnished by the seriousness of the next few scenes. Those scenes that were originally going to be put in this chapter are already mostly written out, so expect another update sometime in the next couple days. In the mean time, enjoy the fluff!**

* * *

"You know, Warden, it will be _quite_ difficult for you to see an attack coming if your eyes never leave the Chantry girl's backside."

Her eyes widening, Catherine stopped in her tracks and turned to give Morrigan her most withering glare. She had indeed been caught. Ever since they'd left the Circle Tower, Catherine couldn't help but see that desire demon wearing the guise of an unclothed Leliana, which always left her wishing rather fervently that she could see the real thing. Which is how her eyes seemed to always end up staring at certain parts of the red-haired woman's body.

Unfazed by the glare she was receiving, Morrigan simply smirked and continued on past the fuming mage, further down the road that would lead back to Redcliffe. Slowly, the Warden turned to look towards Leliana, who was, much to Catherine's relief, grinning.

"Enjoying the scenery, are we?" the bard seemed to purr the words out, making Catherine's head suddenly feel a little lighter and her cheeks much hotter.

"Um, well, it is kind of hard not to," Catherine said slowly, flashing the redhead a small smirk that she'd been carefully saving for just the right moment.

"Oh my," Leliana giggled, "That shy smile you promised me certainly didn't disappoint! And you did manage to surprise me with it, I'm quite impressed."

"So do I get a reward?" Catherine asked with a laugh as she moved up next to the bard so that the two could continue down the road together, "That is how the whole quest thing works, right? The charming hero does something for the stunningly beautiful damsel in distress and she rewards said hero. You're the storyteller here, but if I'm not mistaken the reward is usually a... kiss."

"Hm, I don't know about being the damsel in distress," Leliana gave the mage a frown that was nearly convincing, but the laugh that followed gave it away, "Though I do like the 'stunningly beautiful' part, do go on about that."

"Oh no, no changing the subject!" Catherine exclaimed, crossing her arms and giving the giggling redhead as stern a look as she could muster, "You owe me!"

"You know, usually the hero has to do something actually heroic, like slaying something evil, before they get their reward," Leliana pointed out, "And I don't think smiling shyly counts."

"'Slaying something evil'?" Catherine raised her brow towards the bard, "Um, I don't know if you've noticed, but I do that on a daily basis! In fact, now that I think about it, I've done dozens of heroic deeds and never got a single kiss for any of them!"

"Izzy gives you kisses all the time!"

"That doesn't count!" Catherine pouted, "If I don't get some real kisses from a beautiful lady soon, I might not have the motivation for more heroics."

The bard seemed to consider this, finger tapping at her chin as she watched the mage out of the corner of her eye. Then, before the mage even realized what was happening, Leliana had grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her so she was facing the other women with only a few short inches between their lips. The bard's fingers slowly traced their way down the mage's arms as she looked directly into Catherine's widened eyes.

"Hm, I suppose it would be irresponsible of me to let our gallant leader go without proper motivation," Leliana said quietly, grinning as her arms looped around the Warden's waist and her face moved closer at what seemed to the mage to be a tortuously slow pace.

_If someone interrupts us this time, I can't be held accountable for what I might do..._

The mage had just enough time for that one last thought before she felt the silken softness of Leliana's lips and all thoughts of anything else were quickly forced to the side as she became absorbed in the kiss. As she wrapped her arms around the bard, Catherine savored the wonderfully pleasurable sensations and did her best to memorize every last detail of the redhead's lips and tongue as the two women stood pressed against each other in the middle of the road.

Catherine wasn't sure if they stayed like that for a few seconds or a few ages, but she did know that however long it was, it wasn't long enough.

_Damn lungs and your need of oxygen!_

Gasping for air as they pulled just barely apart from each other, the two women wore wide smiles as they gazed into each others eyes. They would have been quite content to stay like that for much longer, but the sound of a throat being softly cleared made them both suddenly jump apart and turn towards the noise. They both blushed as they found Irving, a few other mages, and a half dozen templars. All of whom, with the exception of Irving, were gawking at the two women.

"My apologies for interrupting," Irving said, smiling, "But I believe it was you, Catherine, that said we needed to get to Redcliffe as quickly as possible."

"Oh, um, yes, of course," Catherine stammered for a moment before continuing on hurriedly, "Me and Leliana were just waiting here for you guys to catch up to let you know that the others have cleared the road ahead. No ambushes waiting for us. So, let's go!"

"Good save," Leliana whispered with another soft giggle.

Grabbing the other woman's hand, the mage quickly turned them both back around to continue down the road at a quick pace. The bard, for her part, simply laughed as she was dragged along.

"You know, I wonder if I should be upset that you seem so ashamed to have been caught kissing me," Leliana said teasingly once Catherine had decided they were far enough away from Irving and slowed their pace.

"It's not that," the mage said as she brought a hand up over her eyes, "It's just, well, Irving has this knack for stumbling upon me when I'm in the middle of kissing some girl, and it's always so awk- what's wrong?"

Catherine turned to face Leliana as the redhead suddenly stopped. The bard had her hands on her hips and was giving the bemused mage a very displeased look.

"'Some girl'?" Leliana huffed, "I'll show you 'some girl'!"

And then suddenly Catherine found herself being pulled firmly against a delightfully soft, warm body as sweet lips came crashing down upon her own in a fierce kiss. For a moment, the mage was too taken aback by the passion of the kiss to respond in kind, but then her own desire for the red-haired seductress kicked in and she returned the kiss with equal feeling.

They didn't even have enough time to use up all the oxygen in their lungs before the sound of a throat being cleared interrupted them.

_Oh damnit, not again_, Catherine thought, her cheeks flushed with both desire and embarrassment as she pulled away and turned to once more find the mages and templars standing there behind them, Irving now grinning and the others still gawking.

"Waiting here to tell us the road is still clear?," the elder mage asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah yeah, very funny. We're in a hurry, I know," Catherine grumbled and pointed her thumb towards Leliana, who was currently grinning like the cat that found the cream, "It's _her_ fault you know."

"Yes yes," Irving said with another chuckle, "It was always the other girl's fault."

Blushing an even deeper shade of red, Catherine once again took hold of Leliana's hand and dragged them forward.

"Just how many 'other girls' have there been, hm?" Leliana poked the embarrassed mage in the side, making her squeal slightly.

"Hey! Not _that_ many!" Catherine swatted at Leliana's hand playfully before her face turned suddenly serious and she continued quietly, feeling suddenly very self-conscious, "You do know that I don't think of you as just 'some girl', right?"

The bard smiled brightly, giving the mage's hand a squeeze as she leaned over to place a soft kiss upon Catherine's cheek.

"Of course I do, my dearest one," Leliana said softly, leaning her head onto her companion's shoulder. The mage rested her head against the bard's and let out a contented sigh as they continued down the road together, hand in hand.

With the comforting warmth of her bard next to her, the future suddenly seemed a lot brighter to Catherine.


	8. Once More into the Fade

**AN: Oh my goodness, two updates in one day? Best get your affairs in order, the world may be coming to an end soon :P Anyways, here's chapter 8, hope you all enjoy! Reviews are always appreciated of course!**

* * *

Despite being such a large room, the Redcliffe Castle's main hall looked rather crowded as Catherine and her companions, along with the Irving and his group of mages and templars, joined Teagan, Isolde, Perth, and a dozen knights and guards.

"Thank the Maker you've finally returned!" Isolde cried out.

"Yes, sorry it took so long," Catherine said, scratching the back of her neck, "The Circle wasn't in the uh... best of shape when we arrived."

"What happened?" Teagan questioned as he looked between Irving and Catherine.

"Let's just say I hate demons even more now than I did before," Catherine grumbled, "Speaking of which, I believe your nephew has one, and I'd very much like to get on with killing it."

"Indeed," Irving said as he waved towards the other mages he'd brought with him, who quickly began arranging themselves in a loose circle as they pulled vials of lyrium from their packs, "Explanations and greetings can wait, the sooner the demon is dealt with, the better." The elder mage looked to Catherine, "Will you be the one to enter the Fade?"

"Um," Catherine hesitated, remembering how her previous trips into the dream-realm had gone.

_If not me, then who?_ the mage internally questioned as she did her best to avoid the worried look Leliana was sending her way, _I'm the one with _lots _of first-hand experience on how to deal with demons within their own sanctum. Plus, I'm the leader, and leaders aren't supposed to send people to do things that they themselves are unwilling to do, right? I think I heard that once somewhere. Oh well, guess I'll just do like I always do: dive in head first and hope there's something soft to land on._

"Yes, I'll go," Catherine said firmly, still avoiding Leliana's gaze.

"Are you sure that's wise?" Alistair asked softly from behind her, "There's other, non-Warden mages that could go."

"Well, I'm starting to build myself quite a reputation as a demon killer, might as well add another one to my score," Catherine grinned, forcing more confidence into her voice then she really felt. With a glance towards the templars, who were watching the Circle mages very closely as they began the ritual, the Warden couldn't help but raise her voice slightly and continue, "Besides, I like how thoroughly I've been putting the templars to shame lately. Must be rather embarrassing for them to see a mage killing all the demons they're supposed to protect us from."

The templars' posture suddenly stiffed, and the mage could practically feel their glares upon. Alistair sighed and rolled his eyes as Catherine allowed herself a self-satisfied smirk.

"Catherine, stop antagonizing the people who are trained to kill mages," Leliana muttered as she moved to stand next to the mage, "And you be careful in there, alright?"

Mustering up all her courage, Catherine flashed the bard her bravest smile and winked.

"Don't worry about a thing, Red," the mage's smile turned into a cocky grin as Leliana smirked at the nickname, "What's one demon compared to the dozens we took care of the other day? I'll be back before you know it."

Catherine reached out to give one of Leliana's hands a comforting squeeze before she turned and moved to stand in the middle of the circle the mages had formed. She nodded her readiness to Irving, who then gave her a small smile and began to mutter an incantation.

_Here goes nothing..._

* * *

One moment, Catherine was standing in Redcliffe Castle, the next she was on one of the Fade's floating islands surrounded by ghostly illusions of Connor and his father, Eamon.

"Who are you? Are you here to hurt father? I won't let you!" one of the illusions cried out as it passed the mage.

"Connor? Connor, where are you?" an image of Eamon seemed to respond to the boy's voice, looking around in every direction frantically.

"Eamon? Can you hear me?" Catherine said as she moved to stand in front of the translucent figure that had just spoken, but, if it was truly Eamon in some form, he couldn't hear her. Instead, the illusion just continued forward, moving _through_ Catherine, which made the mage jump slightly and shiver. Frustrated, the mage turned towards one of the Connors, "What about you Connor, can you hear me?"

"I won't let you hurt father! I won't!" was the only response she got.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again," Catherine mumbled to herself as she spotted a path and decided to follow it, "I really hate this place."

"But why?"

One moment the path she'd started down was entirely empty, the next there was a flash and a solid looking Connor stood before her, looking at her expectantly as he waited for her to answer his question. Narrowing her eyes, Catherine regarded the boy carefully.

_I find it rather hard to believe that the real Connor would be able to just come and go so easily_, the mage thought warily as she gripped her staff tight and gathered a bit of the Fade's ever-present magical energy around herself.

"Because everything here is so dreary," Catherine said slowly, reaching out with her will towards the figure of the boy in front of her. She immediately drew back inside herself as she felt the unwavering hunger that could only come from a demon, "Plus, it seems like everyone here is a demon in disguise."

The mage brought her staff up in front of her to further make her point.

"Why are you here?" the demon asked, no longer bothering to disguise its voice, though it kept the appearance of the boy.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm here to kill you."

Suddenly, both demon and mage unleashed torrents of energy towards each other. The two surges of unstable energy met halfway and the resulting blast knocked Catherine back a few steps. Blinking to try to clear the daze the explosion had left, the Warden barely managed to see the demon, now in it's true form as a monster of desire, charging at her with its whip-like weapon held aloft. Bringing up a quick telekinetic barrier, Catherine grinned as the demon's eyes went wide upon seeing its blow bounce harmlessly off the space just in front of the mage's face.

"Face it demon, you're outmatched," the mage mocked as she gathered up her power once again and reached out with it towards the demon. In her mind's eye, Catherine could see her tendrils of entropic energy latching onto the dark, twisted thing that was the demon's equivalent of a soul, bending the very fiber of the demon's ethereal being. But before the mage could properly tear the demon to shreds, she suddenly felt two more hungry presences behind her.

As a fireball shot over her, Catherine released her hold on the desire demon and dove to the side, her head turning to see the two rage demons that were quickly charging up the path behind her. As they closed on her and readied to strike, the mage unleashed a powerful gust of icy energy that froze the fiery creatures solid. With a casual flick of her wrist she fired off two bolts of telekinetic power, shattering the icebound monsters with ease. Catherine then quickly turned, half expecting the desire demon to be already upon her, but her quarry was nowhere to found. However, the mage did see one of the strange purplish portals that seemed to serve as a means of transportation for the inhabitants of the Fade.

"That wasn't there before, I wonder if that might be where Miss Demon Bitch went. " the mage said to herself sarcastically "Guess there's only one way to find out."

* * *

After chasing the desire demon through a number of portals and dispatching all the lesser demons it had sent after her, Catherine was immensely relieved once she appeared to have the monster cornered. Stepping away from the portal she'd just used, the mage found herself on a rather large, open island. Across the clearing in front of her stood Desire, though, unlike in their previous fights, it had chosen to stay in its true form instead of disguising itself as Connor or Eamon at the beginning as it had before.

"Hm, you are a powerful mortal indeed," the demon spoke in its strange, sultry voice, "I can see that fighting you will do me no good. So perhaps we could make a deal that would benefit us both?

"You demons and your deals," Catherine said, exasperated, "You really think I went through all this trouble just to let you walk away?"

"Do not be too hasty, mortal," Desire said, "I can give you much. Perhaps it is pleasure you seek? I can give you pleasure unlike any you'll find in your mortal realm."

Catherine gave the demon her most Morrigan-like scoff.

"Oh please, I don't really go for the whole horns and evil bitch thing."

"Then perhaps it is magical power you seek," Desire continued on unfazed by the mage's flippant attitude, "Yes, we both know you are going to need great power in your battles to come, and we both know that, as of now, you don't have enough to do what you have to do. But I know many ancient secrets that will grant you the edge you need."

Catherine knew she shouldn't listen, every fiber of her being told her that letting a demon talk was a bad idea, but it had hit on a soft spot. While she had become much more confident in her abilities the past few days, Catherine still knew she was not nearly strong enough to be able to bring down something as powerful as an archdemon.

"You offer me blood magic, don't you?"

"That is what you mortals call it, yes," Desire said, casually stepping forward to press the advantage it knew it now had, "But I offer you more than simply the knowledge of how to cast such spells. Any of you mortals can find that easily enough on your own, however very few are strong enough to properly control such power. You are one of those few, and I will show you how to be the master of these powers. Once you master them, all of your enemies shall fall before you."

"And what do you get in return for this?" Catherine asked warily.

"You must let me go," the demon stated, "I will leave the boy. For now. However, once he has grown older and stronger, I will return."

"Hm, I have a better idea," the mage said as she reached out with the magic she'd been slowly gathering, seizing the demon in a powerful telekinetic grip as her entropic energy once again began to bend at the creature's mockery of a soul, "You give me that knowledge and then you leave the boy. Forever. And if I ever hear that Connor's been possessed again, I'll come back in here and tear you apart in the most painful way I know of. You can take that deal, demon, or I can end you. Your choice."

Desire glared for a few moments at Catherine as it writhed in the mage's magical grip before it suddenly gasped out an agreement.

"Very well, mortal," the demon said as Catherine released her spell, "You have a deal."

* * *

"Oh thank the Maker you're back! Are you alright?"

As she blinked her eyes in an attempt to adjust them to the sudden light all around her, Catherine felt two soft, but strong arms encircle her and squeeze just a little too tight.

"I'm fine Leli," Catherine said softly as she returned the bard's hug. The other woman pulled back and smiled brightly at the mage.

"Did you do it? Is the demon gone?" Isolde questioned, nearly frantic as she knelt down beside where Catherine sat on the floor with Leliana wrapped around her. Everyone else was gathered in a large circle around them, anxiously awaiting the Warden's response.

"Y-yes," Catherine said as she did her best to avoid looking into anyone's eyes, "The demon is gone. Connor is... safe."

LINEBREAKLINEBREAKLINEBREAK

Later that evening, Catherine was lying in the much too large and much too comfortable bed in the spacious royal guest room she'd been given for the night. After she had announced Connor was safe, while Isolde, Teagan, and Alistair rushed upstairs to check on the boy, the rest of those gathered in the hall had decided it was time to celebrate.

A keg had been brought out of seemingly nowhere and even more people from down in the village crammed into the already over-crowded main hall. There were many cheers and toasts for the Grey Wardens and their allies, and Catherine ended up shaking far more hands than she had cared to count, but despite the boisterous air of the room around her, Catherine couldn't stop thinking about her deal with the demon.

After mingling with the people of Redcliffe for what she hoped was a proper amount of time, Catherine had excused herself, saying the trip into the Fade had worn her out. In reality, Catherine knew sleep was unlikely to come, but she could no longer hide the guilt she felt.

_Why do I feel guilty?_ Catherine thought with a huff, _I only did what I had to do for the sake of Ferelden. Everyone is looking to me to save everything, is it really so terrible that I'd go to such lengths to secure the power I need to do just that? Then again, the worst of the horror stories about blood magic always started with the best of intentions. Of course, how do I know those aren't just that: stories the Chantry made up to keep us in line?_

With a loud groan of frustration the mage rolled over and punched at her pillow. The back and forth of her internal monologue was beginning to grate at her nerves, and, just as she'd predicted, it was making sleep impossible.

Just as the mage was looking for something she could light on fire to relieve her frustration, there was a sudden knock on her door. Catherine started slightly, then grumbled at her own jumpiness before slipping out of bed to pull the door open to peek outside. What she saw immediately made her smile.

"Hey you," Leliana said brightly as the mage pulled the door open all the way and waved the bard inside. The redhead was no longer wearing her leathers, instead wearing a simple red outer robe over a blue silk nightgown, both of which, like the nightgown the mage herself was wearing, were borrowed from Isolde. "Going somewhere? I thought you said you were tired."

"I thought I was," Catherine said grumpily as she sat on the edge of her bed, "But now I'm all restless. Can't sleep. So I thought I might go for a walk, but now I think I just want to stay here with you."

The bard's smile grew as she sat down beside the mage, one arm going around Catherine's waist to pull the raven-haired woman against her as she leaned her head into the Warden's.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Leliana asked softly, "Ever since you came out of the Fade earlier you haven't really seemed yourself. What happened in there?"

_What will Leli think of me if she finds out I struck a deal with a demon?_ Catherine asked herself despairingly, _And what of the others? Alistair and Wynne would certainly have quite a few things to say about it. And Sten might just kill me, based on what he's said about how the qunari treat their mages._

"What always happens in the Fade," Catherine sighed as she decided to tell Leliana at least part of the truth, "Everything was confusing and the whole time I felt like I was lost, I killed a bunch of demons, and then I met the desire demon that was possessing Connor."

The mage hesitated, only finding the courage to continue on after the arm around her waist gave her a soft squeeze.

"It... tried to unnerve me," Catherine continued, all but whispering as she stared down at the floor, "It told me that despite how powerful I was, I wasn't nearly strong enough to win the battles that are ahead of me. And the damnedest part is, I think the bitch was right."

"No," Leliana immediately said, her firm tone of voice brokering no argument, "You are the strongest person I've ever met. How many people do you think could have done everything that you've already done?"

"I thought every step along the way was going to be my last," Catherine said with a snort, "And this is the _easy_ part, Leli. If I do somehow managed to unite everyone against the Blight, and I'm quite sure that's a _lot _easier said than done, I still have to then defeat the archdemon. I don't know much about them, but I do know that it usually takes an army of Grey Wardens to bring one down. We only have two."

"One step at a time, my dear," Leliana said as she placed a soft kiss upon the mage's cheek, "And I do believe that our next step should be to get some rest."

"Once again, easier said then done," grumbled Catherine as Leliana pulled her up off the edge of the bed, "I haven't had much luck with it so far."

"Ah, but before you didn't have your bard to keep you company," the redhead laughed softly, her outer robe falling to the floor as she pulled the mage down onto the bed with her.

"I think I like the sound of that," Catherine said, feeling her first hints of real happiness since entering into the Fade earlier that day as she snuggled into Leliana, "'My bard'. Does this mean I'm 'your mage'?"

The bard giggled as she rested her head on the pillow next to Catherine's, their faces so close that the tips of their noses were brushing against each other. The mage took in a deep breath of the other woman's fragrant scent, a mix of Andraste's Grace and an exotic, earthly aroma that Catherine could only classify as _Leliana_. The Warden found her restlessness quickly giving way to comfortable sleepiness as she allowed herself to be absorbed in the warmth, scent, and embrace of the woman she'd fallen in love with so quickly it almost scared her.

_It would scare me,_ Catherine thought happily, _if it didn't feel so... _right_._

"I don't know," Leliana whispered, "Are you my mage? Or are there still some 'other girls' I'll have to... deal with?"

Catherine let out her first real laugh of the evening and leaned her face forward to place a tender kiss upon the bard's lips.

"Nope, I have a feeling you'll keep me far too busy to be anything other than a one-woman gal," Catherine giggled, pressing her forehead against Leliana's, who giggled right back.

"Good," the redhead stated simply, pulling back to place a chaste kiss upon the Warden's brow, "Now go to sleep my beautiful mage."

With one final sleepy mumble, Catherine pressed her face into the crook of Leliana's neck and quickly drifted off into peaceful slumber as her bard held her tight.


	9. An Ambush and a New Friend?

**AN: It's alive! It's alive! Muahaha! Er, I mean, -I'm- alive, and so is this story! I apologize wholeheartedly to anyone who has been hoping to see more of this story. Me and writing have been taking a break, decided to see other people for a little while, but I knew we'd end up back together before too long. As I've said before, this story -will- get finished, whether or not we're at Dragon Age 5 by the time it's done is yet to be seen :P By the way, I'd like to say a huge huge thank you to everyone that has reviewed, I know I didn't respond to most of them (though I plan on getting to that... eventually), but I assure you, they are greatly appreciated! An especially big thank you to Asha'man X, if he's still around, for all his wonderful reviews for pretty much every chapter. Anyways, without further rambling, here's chapter 9!**

* * *

It was a beautiful autumn afternoon as Catherine and her companions traveled along Ferelden's Southern Highway towards the capital of Denerim, on their way to find a Chantry scholar named Genitivi. The Brother apparently had information on where to find the Urn of Sacred Ashes, the mystical relic that would supposedly be able to bring Arl Eamon back from the brink of death. To Catherine, it felt like a long-shot, and both Morrigan and Sten had been quite vocal in their opposition of attempting to find the potentially nonexistent urn. Unfortunately, the mage was afraid they didn't have much choice but to try something seemingly crazy. It was, after all, a strategy that had worked to Catherine's benefit a number of times in the past few weeks.

Looking up at the cloudless sky, feeling the cool autumn breeze caressing her face, Catherine was almost able to forget about all of that. Almost able to forget that she'd had the mantle of leadership in a grand quest thrust upon her against her will, despite being only a few years out of her adolescence. For a few moments, Catherine let herself believe that she was just on a casual stroll, enjoying the wonderful weather with her even more wonderful bard walking along with her, hand-in-hand. But she knew the peace was doomed not to last, she just didn't realize how quickly that doom would come about.

"Oh thank the Maker!" a voice suddenly called out from in front of the group. A haggard-looking woman wearing simple, travel-worn clothing stepped out from a copse of trees alongside the road, her eyes darting around frantically, her face a mask of fear, "You have to help me! Bandits attacked our caravan! They're doing terrible things to them! Please! This way!"

Before Catherine could even respond, the woman had turned and run back along the road, disappearing around a bend a few yards ahead. Signaling for the others to follow, she took off after the woman, unslinging her staff as her companions fell into place around her. Apparently, after their many near death encounters in the fighting at Redcliffe and the Circle Tower, Sten had decided that the group was in need of more coordination. So the qunari warrior had all but demanded that they begin to practice battle formations after setting up camp each night. Though she was often loathe to add more exertion to the already long days of walking and fighting, Catherine had to admit that it was a good idea.

_It certainly proved useful at Honnleath_, Catherine thought as she felt the ground beneath her feet rumble slightly as the latest addition to their party, the dwarven-made golem that liked to be known as Shale, came stomping past her to take up his position at the very front. Before they ran into the traveling tradesman who had given them the control rod to activate Shale, Catherine would have had trouble thinking of a way to make their group even more outlandish than it already was, but after meeting the free-willed golem, her imagination was quickly put to shame.

Sten and Alistair moved up slightly behind and to either side of their walking, talking, fighting boulder friend, while the rest of the party fanned out behind the cover of the three large, well-protected warriors. Catherine's position was right square in the middle of the party, where she would be best placed to both weave her spells and direct her companions through the battle as Sten had begun to teach her.

It was difficult for Catherine at first, trying to keep track of the whole of the battles as they whirled around her, but she was beginning to get her feet under her where it came to tactics and strategy. All thanks to strict and unforgiving, but effective, lessons from Sten and plenty of practice in the field. Though what had truly gotten her confidence in this area going had been their side trip to Honnleath to activate Shale. Even Sten had said she'd done satisfactory in their attack upon the darkspawn that had overrun the village, which she believed to be the qunari form of glowing praise, judging by the harshness of his usual comments.

_But I'd really rather not test my newly learned skills today, I was just enjoying the peaceful weather for Maker's sake,_ Catherine grumbled inwardly as she dashed forward after the panicked woman.

As the group rounded the bend, they saw that the road ahead was completely blocked by a tangled mess of broken carts and wagons, with two short cliffs rising above either side of the road, large rocks littering the bases of the natural walls. The woman they'd followed was standing amidst the wreckage, facing them with her arms casually crossed over her chest, all traces of panic gone from her.

One moment, Catherine was simply confused as her and her allies came to a halt a few yards short of the first overturned cart. The next moment, the twang of bows sang through the air around them, followed immediately by the hiss of arrows flying into the ground in a circle at their feet, their deadly trajectories being shifted safely downward only at the last moment by a quick spell from Wynne.

"Kill the Grey Wardens!" a strangely accented voice called out from amidst the ruined caravan, immediately followed by battle cries from every direction as armored and armed figures began to pop out from where they'd been hidden behind carts and wagons or the brush behind their unsuspecting victims. Archers rose up along the edges of the cliffs, raining arrows down upon the companions. A quick glance at the area around her was enough that even Catherine's rookie command instinct knew they were in serious trouble.

_Trouble? Shit, we're not just in trouble, we're screwed_, the mage thought grimly, but it didn't keep her from shouting out orders as she began to lace the first charging enemy with entropic energy.

"Sten, push to the boulders on the right! Leli, Morrigan, the archers on the cliffs! Alistair, watch the flank! Shale, charge!"

Her words left her mouth in an ordered flurry, her companions instantly complying as the attackers reached their three-man front. The first bandit stumbled slightly as he felt the energy being drained out of his muscles by a spell from Catherine, his head lolling forward slightly as he tried to regain his balance, only for his face to meet Shale's stone fist with sudden finality. Sten's ever-lethal claymore cut down the first two bandits to reach him, and a smack from Alistair's shield sent another reeling backwards, only to be caught by a telekinetically launched rock to the head, directed by Wynne.

The golem at the front didn't even slow as he stepped on and over the first fallen enemy, barreling through the two behind him, sending them spinning off to the ground a few feet away. The being of stone might have been able to charge his way through the entire mass of advancing foes, if not for the giant fireball that suddenly engulfed him. Though the spell went off quite far from Catherine, she still had to take a step back to keep from losing her balance as the concussive wave released by the explosion washed over her. Shale, despite being at the very epicenter, was simply stopped in his tracks for a few moments before he let out something halfway between a frustrated groan and a battle cry. He then moved to meet the three attackers that had set up in front of him, their swords clinking against his stone "skin" with very little effect.

Catherine, however, had little time to see how badly those three would fair against the golem, as her eyes began to frantically scan the ruined caravan, searching for the mage that had cast the fireball, trusting in her faithful mabari and ever-protective bard to keep any enemies from getting too close. She was having little luck finding her target until a lightning bolt suddenly shot forth from behind a pile of shattered wood that had once been a wagon, catching Shale in the shoulder, the force of it making even the heavy war construct take a step back.

Catherine was quick with the retaliation, gathering her will and reaching out towards the enemy mage, who she noticed also happened to be the woman that had led them into the ambush. As the woman gathered her magic about her to unleash another spell, Catherine sent a small bolt of entropic energy drilling into her opponent's mind. The apostate stumbled backwards, hands clutching the sides of her head as the Warden mage seized control of the magical energy that her enemy had summoned. Suddenly the opposing spellcaster was writhing upon the ground in pain as her very own magic turned to arcane fire within her body. Then, as if in afterthought, Catherine casually drained the last of the weakened mage's life away, ending her torment once and for all.

As she continued to cast her spells into the enemies that now had them surrounded, Catherine kept track of the action around her. Sten had sliced his way towards the boulders Catherine had ordered him to with brutal efficiency, the rest of the party shifting their formation in his bloody wake to take cover amongst the rocks. The qunari now stood his ground directly between two large stones off to Catherine's right, cutting down any attacker foolish enough to get within range of his blade. To her left, Alistair was keeping the enemies on their flank at bay with his impressive sword-work and strong shield-arm, handily keeping four opponents tied up entirely on his own.

However, as good at holding attention as he was, Alistair was no match for their newest companion. Shale stood out in front of Catherine, a half dozen enemies now dancing about him, trying, and usually failing, to dodge the golem's powerful blows. Morrigan was lighting up the edge of the cliffs above the group with lightning and frost, keeping the archers up there from taking advantage of their superior position, the occasional cry of pain marking where one of her spells found a target. The archers on the other cliff weren't getting much opportunity to make use of their high ground either, as Leliana's uncanny accuracy quickly taught them to keep their head's down.

Though Catherine and her companions were doggedly holding their ground and had already killed many of the attackers, they were still heavily outnumbered and trapped. The cliffs alongside the road left them only two directions to go. On one side, the wreckage of the caravan blocked the road, and the only paths up to the archers on the cliffs, and on the other side was nothing but open space where they'd be easy targets for those same archers as they tried to fight their way through the bandits blocking the road.

_Come on Catherine, think! Decisive action! Bold, unexpected moves! All that crap Sten kept saying!_

"We have to take one of the cliffs! Shale, break us a path through those wagons! Sten, keep them off him!" Catherine yelled out, surprising herself with just how controlled her voice sounded as panic surged through her. The young Warden turned to launch a volley of spells at the edge of the cliff above her, helping Morrigan to keep the archers pinned down as the companions suddenly shifted towards the caravan, Shale leading the way. The golem was serving as an effective battering ram as he slammed his way through both people and wagons alike. Sten was right behind him, slicing down any that managed to avoid Shale's thundering charge.

_It's working! It's working! I _am _a tactical genius!_

As the party charged in amongst the even more ruined caravan, Catherine's presumptuous thoughts were cut short as she caught sight of a small glass vial flying through the air before her. The vial hit the ground directly in front of the mage, setting off a small blast. Her eyes snapped shut as they were met with a blinding light, her ears ringing as the concussion from whatever it was sent her sprawling onto her back. Groaning, the mage propped herself up on one elbow, eyes blearily blinking open just in time to see a thin, rakish looking male elf clad in pristine leather armor bringing a gleaming dagger down towards her throat.

With a reaction time born of pure adrenaline and fear, Catherine pushed off the ground with the arm she'd been leaning on, her wiry muscles, honed by weeks upon weeks of constant fighting and traveling, flexing to roll herself away from her attacker. She heard the _shuck_ of the dagger digging into the ground she'd just been laying upon, then she spun up onto one knee to face the elf and was surprised to find him halfway through a forward roll. The dagger he'd tried to stab her with was left sticking up out of the dirt as he gracefully came to his feet and pulled out two more blades. In one fluid motion he swung his arms inward so that his blades would cross each other right where Catherine's head happened to be attached to the rest of her body.

Dropping onto her side, Catherine barely managed to duck the swings, one of the blades still managing to catch her shoulder, though she hardly noticed. With no time to gather her magic, the mage desperately kicked out with one leg towards the elf's midsection. The dextrous fighter simply rolled forward over her leg, spinning as soon as he was on his feet, quick legs carrying him back towards his quarry with frightening speed.

However, Catherine had the moment she needed. She brought a hand up in front her, palm aimed directly towards the elf as a blue-white glow began to emanate from it. The glow then suddenly surged forward in a blur of light towards her attacker. Despite having almost no warning and being in the process of moving _towards_ the source of the spell, the lithe elf still managed to spin slightly away from it so that the blast of arcane power only brushed his shoulder, but it was enough to send him twirling face-first into a nearby boulder with a resounding _thud_.

With a brief moment of no one actively trying to kill her, Catherine was able to glance around at the fight around her. Where it had once been a rather organized battle between two distinct groups, the combat had turned into a raging melee amidst what was left of the wagon barricade. Fortunately, she quickly counted all her companions still up and fighting, Leliana being the one her eyes sought out first. They even seemed to be winning, in great part thanks to the elder Circle mage that stood at their center, if Catherine had to guess. Even as she watched Wynne weave her spells with an almost artistic fluidity, the elder mage gathered a bluish energy about her before directing it towards Alistair. The Warden was slumped slightly against a wagon, tiredly trying to fend off two opponents that kept managing to slip strikes past his shield. As the magic engulfed the ex-templar, he seemed to be suddenly filled with a new strength, his shield swinging out to knock one opponent's sword out of his hand before catching the second across the jaw, knocking him onto his back. With a small flourish, Alistair stepped forward and stabbed his blade into his disarmed opponent, then he took another step and finished off the other.

Catherine's attention was suddenly brought back to herself as her wounded shoulder throbbed, sending tendrils of pain sparking up and down her arm and back, though the pain was strangely followed by a numbness that seemed to be spreading outward from the cut. One glance down at her shoulder told her everything she needed to know, seeing the decidedly unhealthy looking purple and green skin around her injury.

_He had poison on his blade!_

The numbness was spreading quick, her knees suddenly giving out beneath her, sending her tumbling to the ground in a heap. She tried to call out, but all that came out of her mouth was a strangled gasp. Blackness began to seep in at the corners of her vision, the sounds of the battle around her being drowned out by the drum of her heartbeat as her slowing pulse pounded in her ears. She struggled to keep her eyes open, desperately hoping to catch one last glimpse of fiery hair and bright blue eyes, then suddenly, nothing...

* * *

"Ah, but you _are_ a strong one, aren't you?" asked a voice from the darkness that Catherine seemed to be stuck in. The voice was sugar and cream wrapped in silk as it caressed its ways through the recesses of her mind.

_Huh? Who's there? Where _is_ there? Where am I?_

"You're caught between the mortal realm and the Fade. Normally you humans would call it 'waking up,' but you seem to be having some trouble with it," the voice responded.

That voice was so disturbingly familiar to Catherine, and it invoked equal parts anger and fear from within her. She was unnerved, and she didn't even know why.

_Who are you?_

"You don't recognize me? You don't remember the one that granted you the great powers you will use to slay your grand enemy? Though, since you apparently haven't even made use of my gift, I suppose I should not be surprised to find that you've forgotten me."

Realization struck with the sudden force of one of Morrigan's lightning bolts. It was the desire demon she'd struck a deal with.

_You! I thought I told you to stay the Void away from me!_

"Ah, but you are wrong, you told me to 'stay the Void away' from that precious boy..." Desire's voice lost much of its silkiness as she mocked Catherine, the lower tone would have sent chills down the mage's spine, but right now she didn't really feel like she had one, "Why have you not made use of the advantage I've given you?"

_I don't have to answer your questions, demon, now leave me alone! If you're doing something to hold me like this, I swear to the Maker I'll be taking a trip into the Fade _real_ soon to do what I should have done the first time I saw you!_

"Ah, such fire. I shall enjoy keeping track of you, for now however..." the demon's voice seemed to shift again, losing its disturbing edge in favor of a softer, slightly accented voice whose familiarity was comforting to Catherine, "_Wake up... wake up..."_

* * *

"Wake up Catherine! I know you can hear me in there, wake up!"

"L-Leli?" Catherine coughed as she forced the word out past her dry, scratchy throat, struggling to force her eyes open, blinking against the soft light of the clear dusk sky above as her eyelids finally pried themselves open. Then suddenly the sky was filled with what Catherine was sure was the most beautiful sight in the world: Leliana.

"About time you rejoined us, sleepyhead," the redhead smiled down at the mage she was currently hovering over, though even in her groggy state, Catherine noticed the shimmer of barely-held tears shining in the bard's eyes, "I was starting to get worried, no matter how many times Wynne told me you were going to be fine."

"Well, I don't exactly feel fine," Catherine groaned as her every muscle seemed to be crying out in pain, but she forced it down as she attempted to sit up. Soft hands pressed onto her shoulders, gently but firmly keeping her laid flat out along the bedroll she belatedly realized she was lying upon.

"Oh no you don't, you need to rest, healer's orders," Leliana said as she pressed a soft kiss to her mage's forehead. Catherine sighed contentedly as Leliana lowered her forehead against the other woman's, the tips of their noses rubbing together slightly, and despite the soreness of her body, Catherine felt herself relaxing.

_Wait! The battle!_

"Relax, dearest one," Leliana's hands returned to her shoulders as she felt Catherine tense beneath her, "Everyone is okay, nothing Wynne couldn't patch up. You were the worst of us all, and only because the poison had spread so far by the time Wynne got her magic into you."

"So, the battle... we won?"

"Yep!" the bard chirped, one hand moving up to cup one of Catherine's cheeks, thumb gently caressing smooth skin, "After Shale broke the barricade, Sten was able to charge the archers while you were busy with the assassin..." The bard paused, her eyes flitting away from Catherine's before she suddenly began to speak in a flurry, "I'm so sorry I wasn't able to help you with him, I tried to get to you, but everything was so mixed up by that point. I couldn't get a clear shot at him without risking hitting you, and whenever I tried to move towards you, one of the other bandits would cut me off! And when I saw you go down, oh Maker, I don't think I've ever been so scared, I thought for sure that–"

"Leli!" Catherine cut her off, forcing one of her tired arms to reach up so she can place her fingers against the bard's cheek, "I'm fine, and you have nothing to apologize for. It's a battle, you can't _always_ be there with a perfectly timed arrow to save me. Besides, I dealt with that... assassin, you say?... handily enough, didn't I?"

"Most certainly, my beautiful adversary!" the accented voice she'd heard calling out for the death of Grey Wardens at the beginning of the battle suddenly rang out from off to the side, and Catherine tensed once more, her eyes going wide as her head snapped to the side, "I have never met a mage that was quite as agile as you, nor as beautiful!"

Standing and smiling a few feet to Catherine's left, with what appeared to be a half dozen different lengths of rope tied around him, was the elven assassin that had nearly killed her. The elven man was slightly smaller than most, with blonde hair and a face that was most definitely handsome, save for the bruise that covered the right side of it. Alistair was behind the assassin, glaring down at him, the Warden's hand pointedly resting on the pommel of his sword.

Before Catherine could think of a response for the elf, Leliana was on her feet in a flash, eyes narrowed dangerously as a small dagger suddenly appeared in her hand, drawn from a hidden sheath in her leather armor.

"Don't you dare speak to her!" Leliana stood directly in front of the assassin, blade held to his throat, her eyes full of deadly promise. The elf, to his credit, didn't even flinch and his smile never wavered as he met Leliana's murderous gaze.

Forcing herself to sit up despite the protest of Wynne, who, along with the others, had come to form a small half circle around where Catherine sat, the mage reached out and took hold of Leliana's hand, tugging on it gently. At first, the bard resisted, never taking her eyes off the elf, but eventually she relented and moved to seat herself beside her Warden.

"I assume you kept him alive this long for a reason, else I'd definitely _not_ be stopping you, Leli," Catherine asked as she glanced between the bard, Alistair, and the mysterious elf.

"He was the leader of that whole ambush, and it definitely wasn't a normal bandit attack," Alistair responded, "So I figured we should find out who sent them, but he refused to talk to anyone but you."

"Don't you mean we should confirm the fact that it was Loghain that sent them?" Catherine asked with a raised brow, "Because honestly, who else could it be?"

"Ah, not only is she beautiful and deadly, but clever too!" the assassin suddenly spoke up once more, his voice filled with suggestion, "I'm beginning to think it's a very good thing I did not succeed in killing you! And I mean that in a number of ways."

Catherine just raised her other eyebrow in question, doing her best to keep a smirk from forming on her lips as she hears Leliana growl softly beside her.

"Well, it would be a shame if I did not get to see what such an agile woman can do in other, more... pleasurable pursuits," the elf said lecherously, though he seemed to hurry on to his next point as Leliana growled a little bit louder, "But mainly, I have a mutually beneficial proposition for you that would not have worked had I succeeded in my contract."

"And what might that be?" Catherine asked, playing along for the time being.

"You let me live, I help you with your task."

Catherine just stared disbelievingly at the elf before she let out a dark chuckle.

"That's it? That's your great proposition? What's to keep you from trying to finish the contract once I let you out of those ropes?"

The elf just continued to smile, his eyes twinkling as if he was enjoying the negotiations about whether he would live or die.

"Ah, but you see, I am no ordinary assassin. I am an Antivan Crow. And the life of any Crow that fails to complete a contract is automatically forfeit," the elf explained, "So you see, I have no more reason to kill you, because even if I did, once I returned to the Crows, they would kill me anyway. The Crows will not stop hunting either of us, so it would only make sense for us to join forces, yes?"

"Anyone know anything real about these Antivan Crows?" Catherine asked as she glanced around at her companions.

"I-I do..." Leliana said softly, staring down at the ground and looking both ashamed and scared, as she often did when speaking about her past, "That... does sound like how I heard they work. It's how they ensure that they only employ the best assassins. But I still don't think you should agree to this, he'll slit our throats first chance he gets."

As she finished, the bard's eyes came back up to glare fiercely at the elf.

"I assure you, I have no more intention of killing you, because, to be honest, you are my best hope for survival," the elf suddenly let out a deep, rich laugh, "Ah, I do enjoy a healthy dose of irony after a good fight!"

Catherine scratched at her chin, pondering the situation.

_On one hand, he very nearly killed me and might very well try again. On the other hand, I saw how good a fighter he is, and we can still use all the help we can get..._

"Wait, you're not actually considering this, are you?" Leliana asked shrilly, taking hold of Catherine's shoulder and turning her slightly so that they can face each other, "He nearly killed you once, I won't let him finish the job!"

"I know you won't," Catherine nodded before shooting a glance towards Alistair. He looked as if he too was about to protest, though Catherine continued before he could speak, "But as we've said before, Grey Wardens take allies where they can find them. And having one of their former members on our side will help a lot when the Crows come after us again."

"Of that I assure you, I know how they think, how they operate," the elf said smoothly, a sly grin on his face, "and I assure you that I will prove to be quite useful, I'm even quite the cook, if I don't say so myself."

"Oh yes, because we all want the assassin who once tried to kill us and has _knowledge of poisons_ cooking our food," Morrigan entered into the debate with her usual scoff and a sneer. This of course made Alistair step forward to glare down at the witch, face scrunched up with frustration the same way it always is when Morrigan says... anything.

"To be fair, I'm just as worried _you'll_ poison my food," Alistair grumbled, Morrigan's sneer forming into a glower to match the former templar's. Knowing this would only devolve into another of their bickering sessions, Catherine spoke up quickly.

"Enough!" Catherine put as much authority into her voice as she could manage in her tired state, "Once again, let's all think about our task for a second, and think about how useful this guy could be if what he's saying is true."

"That's an awfully big 'if,' Catherine," Wynne cautioned, watching the elf warily.

"Yes, I'm aware," the Warden mage stared hard at the elf, who met her gaze levelly, "He comes with us. Worst comes to worst, we'll just kill him later. What's your name, anyways?"

"Ah, mi'lady mage, you may call me Zevran, though I could think of a few other names I'd like for you to-," the assassin cut himself off quickly as Leliana rose to her feet, fist clutched tight around the dagger that hadn't been returned to its sheath at any point in the conversation.

Seeing the tension in Leliana's body, Catherine too forced herself to her feet with a groan as her aching muscles protested far more effectively than Wynne. Once she was up on her feet, she was immediately swept over by a wave of dizziness, swaying slightly. She likely would have fallen right back to the ground, but a pair of arms were wrapped possessively around her waist, and her nose was filled with the fragrance of Andraste's Grace.

"Come on," Leliana whispered tenderly as she gently guided Catherine away from Zevran in the direction of where the party had set up their tents, though the mage could see the bard glancing to where the assassin was being untied by Alistair, "Are you sure about this? We won't be able to watch him all the time..."

"Yes, I am," Catherine let out a tired sigh, "I think he's being sincere about the whole 'Crows want to kill me too' thing."

"Oh Catherine," Leliana stopped, turning to look at the mage with an expression caught halfway between exasperation and... something that made Catherine's stomach twist itself into a very tight bundle of nerves, in the best possible way, "Though it's one of the things I find endearing about you, you can be so naïve sometimes."

The mage felt her stomach clench once again, but this time not in a good way.

"I am _not_ naïve, not after everything I've been through these past weeks!" Catherine began heatedly, her fatigue giving way to an anger she didn't entirely understand. She knew that Leliana had just been teasing, but for some reason it struck a chord, "I'm perfectly capable of making decisions, I've had to be, because no one else around here is willing to put _their _neck out there! Everyone is always so quick to tell me what I'm doing wrong, but they never have much of an alternative! I'm just doing what I _have_ to do, why can't anyone understand that?"

The bard blanched as her mage went off on her rant, caught off guard by the sudden mood swing.

"I-I'm sorry Catherine," Leliana said softly, her eyes staring down at the ground between her feet, "And I do understand that you're just doing what you think is necessary, but as I said, I nearly lost you to that assassin once, I can't stand the thought that he might try again and succeed."

"I think I've proven I can handle myself! I was the one who brought that Zevran down without any help!"

"I know that," Leliana said quickly, taking a small step away from the fuming mage as a look of what might be fear flitted across her features.

_Fear? What in the Void has gotten into me right now?_

Catherine suddenly sagged, the burning energy of her anger fading away to be replaced by the aches of weariness, and now it was her eyes that were stuck to the ground.

"Oh Maker, Leli, I'm sorry, that was all way out of line," the mage whispered, shame burning her cheeks as one of her hands lifted slightly, unsure whether she should reach out to the bard or keep the space the other woman had created between them.

The bard quickly answered Catherine's unspoken question, stepping forward to take hold of the Warden's small, soft hand and to close the distance between them, her other arm wrapping around the younger woman's back as she presses her cheek against Catherine's.

"It's alright, dearest," Leliana said softly as she once again began to guide the mage towards her tent, "It has been a rough day for us all, but especially you. You should get some rest."

As the pair arrived at Catherine's tent, there was a moment of awkward silence as they stood there, glancing between each other and the tent. At Redcliffe, they'd shared a bed together, but solely for the purpose of sleeping, not that Catherine hadn't had plenty of thoughts about what else they could use that bed for. Since leaving Redcliffe however, they had both slept in their own tents separately, and the mage wasn't even sure why. They'd never really talked about it, just went back to their normal routine.

Now, however, Catherine knew she didn't want to spend the night alone, and she had a feeling Leliana would be keeping guard outside her tent all night if she _didn't_ invite the bard in.

"Do you, um, want to come in with me?"

_Great line, real romantic, definitely the kind of thing a bard with knowledge of grand romantic stories wants to hear_, Catherine thought, barely managing to keep her internal grimace from showing on her face at the awkwardness that had suddenly forced its way between the two.

Awkwardness that was quickly quelled by the bright smile that lit up Leliana's face.

"I would love to," the bard said simply, squeezing the hand she held. The bard paused for a moment, not moving to follow Catherine as she bent down to enter the tent, then suddenly the redhead was speaking hurriedly, "I've actually wanted to say that, well, I haven't slept so well as I did that night in Redcliffe in a very long time. And we do have a new member of our party now, and he's without a tent. We could save ourselves some sovereigns and give him mine, if you don't mind sharing your tent with me all the time, of course."

"I don't think I've ever heard a better plan than that," Catherine said with a smile to match Leliana's, though it quickly twisted into a crooked grin as she began to slip into the tent, "Though you had better not keep me up with your snoring."

"I do not snore!"

"Psh, you were snoring so loudly at Redcliffe that you even woke Izzy up!"

The peaceful silence that had permeated the air around the camp was suddenly broken, a loud squeal and many giggles sounding out from within Catherine's tent as the bard brought swift justice down upon the mage for her offenses, in the form of relentless tickling. Once they were both breathless from laughing and struggling against each other, they collapsed upon the bedroll, arms wrapped tightly about one another.

_Yeah, I could definitely get used to this,_ Catherine thought happily as she began to drift off, safe in the knowledge that she was in Leliana's arms.


End file.
